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LIBRARY 

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Columiita  Slniirersttg 

STUDIES  IN  ROMANCE  PHILOLOGY 
AND  LITERATURE 


PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 


PIERRE    LE    TOURNEUR 


BY 
MAEY  GERTRUDE  GUSHING 


Submitted  in  Partial  Fulfilment  op  the  Bequire- 

MENTS  FOR  THE  DeGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

IN  THE  Faculty  of  Philosophy,  Columbia 
University 


NEW  YORK 
1908 


EXCKAi-^iiE 


COPTBIGHT,   1908, 

By  the  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS. 
Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  September,  1908. 


J.  8.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  A  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


TO  MY  PARENTS 


188828 


NOTE 

The  following  dissertation  was  examined  by 
the  Department  of  Romance  Languages  and 
Literatures  of  Columbia  University,  and  con- 
sidered a  valuable  contribution  to  literary 
history,  deserving  to  be  accepted  in  partial 
fulfilment   of   the  requirement  for  the  Degree 

of  Doctor  of  Philosophy. 

ADOLPHE  COHN. 
Columbia  University, 
September,  1908. 


PEEFACE 

This  volume  aims  to  present  a  clear  and 
connected  account  of  a  little-known  and  almost 
forgotten  figure  in  French  literature.  The 
beginnings  of  the  Romantic  Movement  in 
France  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century  were  aided  and  accelerated  by  the 
influence  of  English  literature,  and  especially 
by  the  work  of  Young,  Ossian,  and  Shake- 
speare. To  Pierre  Le  Tourneur  belongs  the 
honor  of  having  produced  the  first  complete 
translations  of  these  three  poets,  and  of  having 
made  them  known  to  his  countrymen.  A  study 
of  his  life  and  work  is,  then,  of  distinct  interest 
in  the  history  of  literary  cosmopolitanism  in 
France.  No  detailed  treatment  of  the  subject 
as  a  whole,  such  as  the  present  essay  attempts, 
has  before  been  made.  Lacroix  in  his  Influ- 
ence de  Shakespeare  sur  le  Thedtre  Frangais 
(1856),  Professor  Lounsbury  in  /Shakespeare 
and  Voltaire  (1902),  and  M.  Jusserand  in 
Shakespeare  in  France  under  the  Old  Regime 
(1899),  devote  certain  chapters  to  valuable 
studies  of  the  translation  of  Shakespeare.  The 
ix 


X  PREFACE 

translation  of  Young  is  ably  discussed  by 
M.  Thomas  in  his  monumental  work  on  Ed- 
ward Young  (1895)  and  by  M.  Joseph  Texte 
in  his  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau  et  le  Cosmopoli- 
tanisme  dans  la  Litter ature  Frangaise  (1895). 
M.  Texte  also  gives  an  interesting  and  sug- 
gestive survey  of  the  translation  of  Ossian. 
No  one  of  these  scholars,  however,  has  under- 
taken to  give  more  than  an  incidental  treatment 
of  individual  works.  No  careful  study  of  the 
life  and  work  of  Le  Tourneur,  such  as  is  pro- 
posed in  the  present  monograph,  has  hitherto 
been  attempted. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  take  this  opportunity  of 
expressing  my  thanks  for  courtesies  extended 
to  me  by  the  officials  of  the  Columbia  Uni- 
versity Library,  and  of  the  Bibliotheque  Na- 
tionale;  by  M.  FoUiot  of  the  Library  in 
Valognes,  Normandy,  and  by  M.  Lemarquand, 
President  de  la  Societe  Archeologique.  To 
Professor  Adolphe  Cohn,  I  am  indebted  for 
the  suggestion  of  my  theme,  for  friendly  criti- 
cism and  counsel,  and  for  help  in  reading  proof. 

M.   G.  C. 

Columbia  Universitt, 
June.  1908. 


CONTENTS 

OHAPTEB  PAOK 

I.    Le  Tourneur,  the  Man       ....        1 
II.    The  Writer  of  Essays  and  Eulogies      .      21 

III.  The  Interpreter  of  the  English  School 

OF     Melancholy:      Translations     of 
Young,  Hervey,  and  Ossian         .        .      43 

IV.  Minor  Translations  :   English,  German, 

Italian 103 

V.    The  Translator  of  Shakespeare     .        .    154 
VI.    Conclusion 253 

Appendices  : 

A.  Chronological  List  of  Le  Tourneur's^  Works    263 

B.  Hervey  and  Montaigne         .        .         .        .266 

C.  Le  Comte  de  Catuelan 268 

D.  Examples  of  Eighteenth-century  Criticism 

of  Le  Tourneur's  Translation  of  Shake- 
speare        270 

E.  Bibliography  of  Editions     .        .        .        .277 

F.  Bibliography 290 

General  Bibliography 293 

Index 305 

zi 


^     •FT!.- 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


I.    LE  TOURNEUR,   THE  MAN 

The  study  of  the  appreciation  of  Shakespeare 
in  France  is  a  theme  of  peculiar  interest  when 
viewed  in  relation  to  the  development  of  Euro- 
pean taste.  In  the  history  of  no  other  nation  is 
there  so  striking  a  picture  of  the  gradual  enlarge- 
ment of  dramatic  taste  through  the  influence  of 
a  single  personality.  The  last  quarter  of  the 
eighteenth  century  presents  the  beginning  of  a 
literary  phase  which  is  perhaps  unique  :  a  nation, 
opposed  by  training  and  education  to  the  genius 
of  Shakespeare,  brought  by  the  influence  of 
that  genius  to  admire  and  esteem  what  it  had 
ignored  as  insignificant  and  despised  as  barba- 
rian. The  study  of  such  a  phase  is  suggestive, 
both  in  attesting  the  universality  of  Shakespeare 
and  in  throwing  a  clearer  light  upon  the  char- 
acter and  development  of  French  taste. 

One  of  the  most  important  factors  in  this 
expansion  of  dramatic  taste  was  the  first  com- 
plete translation  of  Shakespeare,  by  Pierre  Le 
B  1 


2  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

Tourneur,  the  first  volumes  of  whicli  appeared 
in  1776  and  the  last  in  1783.  This  was  not 
only  the  first  complete  translation  of  the  English 
poet,  but  the  first  of  any  literary  value,  and  the 
one  which  served  as  the  basis  of  all  other 
French  translations  down  to  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  It  was  on  the  occasion  of 
this  translation  that  Voltaire  raised  his  famous 
storm  of  criticism  against  Le  Tourneur,  and  it 
was  around  this  that  was  waged  one  of  the  most 
picturesque  and  one  of  the  fiercest  wars  in  the 
history  of  literature.  The  partial  translations 
and  analyses  by  La  Place  in  1745,  the  imita- 
tions and  adaptations  by  Ducis  in  his  Hamlet^ 
1769,  and  in  his  Romeo  et  Juliet,  in  1772,  and 
above  all,  Voltaire's  brilliant  criticism,  begun 
as  early  as  1734  in  the  Lettres  Philosophiques, 
had  already  made  Shakespeare  a  familiar  name 
in  France  and  aroused  an  interest  in  his  work. 
But  as  yet  no  complete  or  adequate  translation 
existed.  It  remained  for  Pierre  Le  Tourneur, 
by  his  faithful  and  conscientious  rendering,  to 
enable  the  French  people  to  judge  for  them- 
selves concerning  the  beauties  and  defects  of 
the  great  "  barbarian "  whom  Voltaire  seemed 
both  to  admire  and  to  despise.     Le  Tourneur's 


LE   TOURNEUR,   THE  MAN  3 

translation  thus  played  a  significant  part  in  the 
history  of  the  appreciation  of  Shakespeare  in 
France.  Its  appearance  marked  an  epoch  in 
that  expansion  of  taste  which  was  to  culminate 
later  in  the  Romantic  Movement,  and  on  this 
account  alone,  a  study  of  the  life  and  work  of 
its  author  is  of  interest  to  the  student  of  lit- 
erary cosmopolitanism. 

But  aside  from  his  translation  of  Shakespeare, 
Le  Tourneur  has  other  claims  to  the  considera- 
tion of  posterity.  His  translations  of  Young  and 
Ossian  introduced  to  France  the  poetry  of  the 
English  School  of  melancholy,  and  not  only  did 
much  to  increase  interest  in  English  literature, 
but  exerted  an  appreciable  influence  on  the 
development  of  French  taste.  In  addition  to 
his  purely  literary  labors  he  held  positions  of 
responsibility  and  dignity.  He  was  Censeur 
Royal  et  Secretaire  gSnSral  de  la  Lihrairie^  and 
Secretaire  ordinaire  de  Monsieur^  brother  of 
Louis  XVI.  Furthermore,  he  was  a  man  of 
high  character,  of  winning  personality,  and  an 
able  and  conscientious  worker.  By  his  con- 
temporaries he  was  regarded  as  a  distinguished 
man  of  letters  and  an  eminent  translator.  He 
%  won  public  esteem   by   three  original  Discoura 


4  PIEREE  LE  TOURNEUR 

which  were  awarded  prizes  in  1766  and  1767  by 
the  Academies  of  Montauban  and  Besangon. 
A  little  later,  he  made  a  brilliant  reputation  for 
himself  by  his  translations,  or  rather  imitations, 
of  Young's  Night  Thoughts  in  1769  and  Hervey's 
Meditations  on  the  Tombs  in  1770.  At  the  time 
he  began  the  publication  of  his  translation  of 
Shakespeare  in  1776  he  had  already  brought  out 
a  French  version  of  Johnson's  Life  of  Savage 
and  one  of  Thomson  and  had  collaborated  in  a 
translation  of  Robertson's  History  of  Charles  V, 
Shortly  afterwards  he  produced  a  translation  of 
Ossian  and  somewhat  later  one  of  Clarissa 
Harlowe.  But  he  did  not  confine  his  attention 
wholly  to  English  literature.  Besides  various 
other  labors  of  minor  importance  he  translated 
some  of  Ariosto's  minor  poems  and  two  German 
works  of  travel.  In  addition,  he  found  time  to 
compose  another  original  eulogy  and  left,  at  his 
death  in  1788,  the  manuscript  of  the  Jardin 
Angloisy  ou  VariStSs  tant  originales  que  traduites^ 
containing  many  original  sketches  and  fugitive 
translations. 

As  the  first  complete  translator  of  Shake- 
speare, Young,  and  Ossian,  as  a  critic  broad- 
minded  and  keen,  far  in  advance  of  his  time,  as 


LE  TOURNEUR,   THE   MAN  5 

a  gracious  and  winning  personality,  Le  Tour- 
neur  is  worthy  of  being  rescued  from  oblivion, 
and  merits  a  place  among  those  who  have  con- 
tributed to  the  growth  and  progress  of  human 
thought.  For,  by  bringing  the  cultivated  minds 
of  his  own  country  into  contact  with  the  best 
literature  of  other  nations,  he  assisted  Voltaire 
in  developing  that  breadth  of  view  and  that  just 
appreciation  of  literary  excellence  by  means  of 
which  French  criticism  has  attained  its  present 
eminent  position. 

Pierre  Prime  Felicien  Le  Tourneur  was  born 
in  Basse  Normandie,  in  the  town  of  Valognes, 
now  in  the  department  of  La  Manche,  June  9, 
1737,  and  baptized  the  following  day  by  Ber- 
nardin  Felix  Guillot,  vicar  of  the  town.  His 
father  was  not  present  at  the  baptism  of  the 
child,  and  the  boy  was  named  by  his  god-parents, 
Pierre  Vicq  de  Vallamprey  and  Marguerite 
Lonce,  wife  of  Guillaume  Le  Tourneur.  Al- 
though only  about  eleven  miles  from  Cherbourg 
and  on  the  direct  line  of  railway  communica- 
tion between  that  city  and  Paris,  Valognes  is 
to-day  a  drowsy,  picturesque  town  of  some  six 
thousand  inhabitants,  almost  as  devoid  of  life  and 


6  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

action  as  if  it  lay  in  an  enchanted  sleep.  But  in 
the  eighteenth  century  it  was  an  important  place. 
It  was  the  seat  of  a  viscountcy,  and  famous  for 
its  manufactories  of  cloth  and  lace.  It  had  its 
own  independent  governor,  a  fifteenth-century 
church,  a  college,  and  a  library  and  was  the  resi- 
dence of  many  marquises  and  barons  who 
erected  fine  mansions  and  imitated  as  closely  as 
possible  the  gaiety  of  Paris.  Le  Sage's  comedy 
of  Turcaret^  performed  in  1709,  contains  an  in- 
teresting account  of  Valognes,  in  which  he  ridi- 
cules the  provincial  society  which  apes  the  life 
of  the  large  city  and  prides  itself  on  being  "  un 
petit  Paris."! 

It  was  in  this  "  little  Paris,"  then,  the  home 
later  of  Burnouf  (1821-)  the  oriental  scholar, 
Gerville  (1769-1853)  the  antiquarian,  Pelouze 
(1807-1867)  the  chemist,  and  other  distin- 
guished men,  that  Pierre  Le  Tourneur  first  saw 
the  light.  His  father,  Thomas  Le  Tourneur, 
and  his  mother,  Anne  Hervieu,  practised  the 
trade  of  lace  dealers  in  Valognes.  They 
were,  according  to  Pujos,^  his  chief  biographer, 

1  Le  Sage,  Turcaret,  Act  V.  Scene  7. 

2  M.  Pujos,  Notice  sur  la  Vie  de  Le  Tourneur^  prefixed 
to  Le  Jardin  Anglois. 


LE  TOURNEUR,   THE  MAN  7 

neither  rich  nor  noble,  but  upright  and  honest 
folk  who  endeavored  to  make  up  to  their  son 
for  their  lack  of  wealth  and  rank,  by  giving 
him  the  best  education  that  their  means  could 
procure.  "  Le  jeune  Le  Tourneur  se  montra 
digne  de  posseder  ce  bien,"  says  Pujos  ;  "  on  ne 
pouvoit  I'arracher  de  dessus  les  livres."  He 
was  sent  for  his  Humanities  to  Coutances,  where 
he  received  a  scholarship  and  where  he  was  re- 
marked for  his  serious  and  meditative  turn  of 
mind  and  his  passionate  love  of  study.  Thence 
he  went  to  the  College  des  Grassins  in  Paris, 
where,  on  the  completion  of  his  Mhetorique^  he 
won  the  first  prize  of  the  University.  Under 
ordinary  circumstances  a  young  man  would  then 
leave  college  not  later  than  eighteen  years  of 
age  and  it  may,  therefore,  be  conjectured  that 
Le  Tourneur  finished  his  college  career  in 
1754.  His  biographer,  Pujos,  however,  gives 
at  this  point  a  somewhat  vague  and  rather 
puzzling  piece  of  information.  "  Son  ddbut  lit- 
t^raire,"  he  says,  "  au  sortir  des  classes,  fut  dans 
le  genre  oratoire.  II  envoya  des  Discours  tres 
interessans  a  plusieurs  Academies,  et  merita 
d'etre  couronn^."  At  first  sight,  Pujos  would 
seem  by  this  to  refer  to  two  Discours  addressed 


8  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUB 

to  the  Academies  of  Montauban  and  Besan^on 
in  1766  and  1767,  the  earliest  work  of  Le  Tour- 
neur  of  which  there  is  any  record,  and  which 
one  would  naturally  infer  to  be  his  first  es- 
says in  literature.  But  these  Discours  were 
"  crowned "  by  the  Academies  to  which  they 
were  presented,  and  if  Pujos  refers  to  them,  it 
would  make  Le  Tourneur  remain  in  college  till 
the  age  of  thirty,  a  theory  hardly  tenable. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  Le  Tourneur  graduated 
in  1754  and  made  his  literary  d^but  soon 
after  in  other  Discours,  it  is  strange  that 
they  have  been  so  completely  lost.^  It  is  to  be 
regretted  that  Pujos  did  not  see  fit  to  be  more 
explicit  and  did  not  state  exactly  what  he 
meant  by  "  au  sortir  des  classes."  But  he  evi- 
dently thought  that  a  biographer  need  not  con- 
fine himself  to  definite  facts,  exact  dates,  and 
accurate  statements.  He  preferred  to  deal  in 
broad  outlines  and  general  assertions,  which  cer- 
tainly arouse  the  reader's  interest  by  stimulat- 
ing his  curiosity. 

1  It  is  possible  that  the  Discours  of  1766  and  1767  were 
not  the  first  essays  in  literature  by  Le  Tourneur,  but  the 
first  wliich  received  public  recognition,  and,  therefore,  the 
first  considered  worthy  of  notice  by  his  biographer. 


LE  TOURNEUR,   THE   MAN  9 

"M.  Le  Tourneur,"  he  says,  after  speaking 
of  his  literary  debut  in  the  words  already  cited, 
"contrarie  par  une  situation  genee,  s'attacha  a 
M.  de  la  Briffe,  alors  Avocat  General  au  Grand 
Conseil :  le  plaidoyer  que  prononga  ce  Magistrat 
dans  Faff  aire  d'un  religieux,  I'Abbe  d'Orval,  qui 
reclamoit  contre  ses  voeux,  excita  une  vive  sen- 
sation et  d^cela  la  touche  du  genie  auquel  nous 
allions  devoir  Testimable  traduction  d' Young.'' 
It  would  appear  from  this  that  Le  Tourneur 
was  under  the  necessity  of  earning  a  liveli- 
hood and  engaged  in  law  as  the  most  lucra- 
tive and  honorable  profession  open  to 
him.  But  it  is  not  likely  that  a  young  man 
of  so  pronounced  a  literary  taste  and  of  so 
mild  and  retiring  a  disposition  as  Le  Tourneur 
appears  to  have  been  should  have  thrown  him- 
self with  anything  but  a  temporary  ardor  into 
the  profession  he  had  chosen. 

It  was  with  difficulty  that  one  of  his  old 
friends  succeeded  in  overcoming  his  distaste  for 
any  kind  of  public  life,  and  in  1771  persuaded 
him  to  accept  the  position  of  Cemseur  Royal  et 
SecrStaire  GSneral  de  la  Lihrairie.  "  M.  Le 
Tourneur  remplit  ses  devoirs  avec  autant  d'ex- 
actitude  que  de  probite.     S'il  eut  quelques  en- 


10  PIERKE  LE  TOURNEUR 

nemis,"  continues  Pujos,  with  delicious  na'ivet^, 
"c'est  qu'il  est  impossible  de  n'en  point  avoir, 
et  de  contenter  tout  le  monde,  lorsqu'on  a  le 
malheur  d'occuper  le  moindre  poste  qui  nous 
mette  en  relation  avec  le  Public." 

But  the  gentleness  and  simplicity  of  Le  Tour- 
neur  and  his  scholarly  and  retiring  habits  ill- 
fitted  him  to  cope  with  the  world  into  which  he 
was  plunged  by  the  duties  of  his  new  position. 
Whether  he  lost  it  through  lack  of  worldly  wis- 
dom, or  whether  he  gave  it  up  of  his  own  free 
will,  is  not  clear.  Whatever  the  cause,  in  1775 
he  "recovered  his  liberty,"  in  the  words  of 
Pujos,  and  retired  to  Montrouge,  then  a  suburb 
of  Paris,  where  he  devoted  himself  with  enthu- 
siasm to  literature. 

Le  Tourneur  had  already  made  a  name  for 
himself  in  the  world  of  letters  by  his  moral 
essays  and  eulogies  and  by  his  adaptations  of 
Young  and  Hervey.  But  although  these  early 
works  of  his  were  very  favorably  received,  he 
abandoned,  for  the  time  being  at  least,  all  origi- 
nal composition,  and  began  the  work  of  transla- 
tion which  was  to  occupy  him  for  the  rest  of  his 
life.  All  kinds  of  literature  attracted  his  tire- 
less pen;  the  poetry  of  the  school  of  melancholy 


LE  TOURNEUR,   THE   MAN  11 

in  the  works  of  Young  and  Ossian,  the  drama 
of  Shakespeare,  the  sentimental  novel  in  Clarissa 
Harlowe^  the  moral  tale  and  the  essay,  history, 
biography,  and  stories  of  exploration  and  travel, 
followed  one  another  with  astonishing  rapidity 
during  the  twenty  years  of  his  literary  career. 
The  translation  of  a  work  on  Arctic  Zoology^ 
published  after  his  death,  was  the  last  of  his 
long  line  of  labors,  and  like  the  others,  with 
the  possible  exception  of  Young,  Shakespeare, 
and  Ossian,  was  destined  to  fall  into  ob- 
livion. 

From  the  time  of  Le  Tourneur's  retirement 
to  Montrouge  in  1775,  to  his  death  in  1788, 
one  event  only  in  his  life  is  mentioned  by  his 
biographer.  He  became  at  an  unknown  date 
Secretaire  ordinaire  de  Monsieur^  brother  of  the 
king,  who  was  to  be  later  known  as  Louis 
XVIII.  Le  Tourneur  was  persuaded  by  his 
friends  to  solicit  this  position,  and  he  obtained 
it,  moins  Jlatfe,  says  Pujos,  "de  cette  espece  de 
distinction  qui  auroit  pu  lui  inspirer  quelque 
vanity,  qu'anim^  du  d^sir  d'etre  utile  a  son  jils; 
11  a  ferm^  les  yeux  plein  de  I'espdrance  conso- 
lante  que  le  grand  Prince  si  digne  d'appuyer  les 
Beaux-Arts  et  auquel  il  avoit  dt^  attache,  con- 


12  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

tinueroit  d'^tendre  son  auguste  protection  sur 
sa  famille." 

This  would  seem  to  indicate  that  Le  Tourneur 
retained  the  position  of  Secretary  up  to  the  time 
of  his  death,  and  it  is  possible  that  he  was  per- 
mitted to  perform  the  duties  of  his  office  at  his 
own  home,  instead  of  being  attached  directly  to 
the  court.  In  1779  he  was  living,  or  at  least 
had  a  place  of  business,  in  the  H6tel  de  Valois, 
rue  de  Tournon,  in  Paris,  and  he  died  in  the  rue 
du  Theatre  Frangais.i 

With  the  exception  of  a  visit  which  he  is  said 
to  have  made  to  Valognes,  in  1787,  with  Sebas- 
tien  Mercier  and  another  friend,  it  is  probable 
that  he  passed  the  remainder  of  his  life  in  his 
home  at  Montrouge  or  in  Paris,  surrounded 
by  his  friends  and  devoting  his  time  and  atten- 
tion to  literature.  He  was  an  indefatigable 
worker,  and  though  hampered  by  an  inherent 
weakness  of  constitution,  he  gave  himself  no 
rest  from  his  labors  even  when  his  health  had 
become  broken  by  too  close  and  unremitting 
application  to  study.  Only  a  week  before  his 
death  did  he  consent  to  lay  down  his  pen,  when 

1  Journal  de  Paris,  Sun.  Jan.  26,  1788  ;  AfficfieSj  An- 
nonces  et  Avis  divers,  Jan.  28,  1788. 


LE  TOURNEUR,   THE  MAN  13 

a  disorder  from  which  he  had  suffered  for  some 
months  confined  him  to  his  room.  He  expired 
peacefully  on  the  22nd  ^  or  24th  2  of  January, 
1788,  and  his  body  was  interred  in  St.  Sulpice^ 
on  Sunday  the  25th.  S^bastien  Mercier  says 
that  he  left  a  widow  and  a  son  three  years  old,* 
and  this,  together  with  the  brief  mention  of 
his  son  by  Pujos,  already  quoted,  is  almost  the 
only  information  to  be  found  concerning  his 
family.^ 

1  Desessarts,  Siecles  Litteraires,  1801,  p.  256  ;  Journal  de 
Normandie,  Feb.  9,  1788 ;  Epitaph  in  Annee  LUteraire, 
1788,  Vol.  II.  —  give  Jan.  24. 

2  Ersch,  La  France  LUteraire,  1789,  vol.  3 ;  Journal 
General  de  la  France,  Feb.  17,  1788, — give  Jan.  22. 

^  Affiches,  Annonces  et  Avis  divers,  Jan.  28,  1788. 

*  Journal  de  Paris,  Jan.  31,  1788. 

s  The  house  in  which  Le  Tourneur  was  born  in  Valognes 
stood  close  to  the  northern  wall  of  the  sacristy  of  the  church 
of  St,  Malo.  It  was  demolished  in  1772  in  order  to  widen 
the  highroad  from  Cherbourg  to  Paris,  and  Le  Tourneur 
was  to  receive  an  indemnity  of  936  francs  together  with  a 
grant  of  land  near  the  chateau.  Owing  to  administrative 
difficulties,  however,  Le  Tourneur  was  paid  only  400  francs 
indemnity.  In  1811  Mme.  V^  Le  Tourneur,  who  had  married 
M.  C6sar  Ren§  Guyot  Duclos,  colonel  du  g6nie,  and  her 
son,  Louis  Eugene  F^licien  Le  Tourneur,  captain  in  the  8th 
regiment  of  foot  artillery,  made  an  unsuccessful  public  claim 
to  the  grant  of  land  and  the  payment  of  the  sam  due.  — 
Mem.  Soc.  Arch,  de  Valognes,  1885,  III.  pp.  49-59,  article 
"Le  Tourneur,"  by  Auguste  Grou. 


14  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

The  year  1788,  in  which  Le  Tourneur  died, 
was  marked  by  the  loss  of  a  number  of  dis- 
tinguished men.  The  Journal  de  Normandie 
for  the  30th  of  April,  1788,  notices  this  fact  in 
an  editorial  enumerating  the  great  men  who 
had  died  within  a  few  months.  Almost  all 
classes  which  might  attract  the  attention  of 
posterity,  it  says,  are  represented  in  this  fatal 
list.  There  is  a  king,  the  Pretender ;  a  prince 
of  the  church,  the  Cardinal  de  Luines ;  a  dis- 
tinguished man  of  letters,  M.  Le  Tourneur; 
a  great  musician,  Gliick ;  a  celebrated  orator, 
M.  Gerbier;  a  promising  young  painter,  M. 
Drouais;  the  TibuUus  of  Germany,  Gessner; 
an  Amateur  whose  life  had  not  lacked  glory, 
d'Argental;  and  finally,  a  distinguished  natu- 
ralist, Buffon.  It  is  interesting  to  find  Le 
Tourneur's  name  on  this  list  of  distinguished 
men,  for  although  most  of  them  are  now  re- 
membered while  he  is  forgotten,  his  contempo- 
raries evidently  considered  him  deserving  of  a 
place  in  the  Temple  of  the  Immortals. 

Two  epitaphs  on  Le  Tourneur  were  published 
in  current  periodicals  shortly  after  his  death, 
and  show  that,  at  that  time  at  least,  he  was 
more  renowned  for  his  rendering  of  Young's 


LE  TOURNEUE,   THE   MAN  15 

Night  Thoughts  than  for  his  translation  of 
Shakespeare.  The  first  is  in  the  Annee  Litte- 
raire  for  1788  (Vol.  II.  p.  281) : 

flPITAPHEDE   M.   Le   ToURNEUR,   MORT  LE  24  JaNVIER, 

1788 

Ci-git  I'eloquent  le  Tourneur, 

D'Young  rimitateur  fidele ; 

Si  digne  d'etre  un  bon  modele, 

Et  par  I'esprit  et  par  le  cceur ; 

Sans  eclat,  sans  Fauteuil,  il  termina  sa  vie, 

Tandis  que  tel  ou  tel  brille  k  TAcadeiTiie. 

—  Par  M.  de  Sancy. 

The  second  is  from  the  Journal  de  N'ormandie, 
April  9,  1788,  and  is  as  follows ; 

l^piTAPHE  DE  M.  Le  Tourneur 

Un  sage  a  vu  sa  derniere  heure : 

En  le  f  rappant  la  mort  nous  a  ravi 

Un  Ecrivain  sublime,  un  bon  pere,  un  ami, 

Un  tendre  epoux  .  .  .  Passant,  arrete,  et  pleure  I 

L'Young  Fran9ais  repose  ici. 

—  Par  M.  DE  Con  JON,  de  Bayeux. 

Le  Tourneur's  life,  as  revealed  by  the  account 
of  Pujos  and  other  biographical  notices,  was 
singularly  barren  of  incident.  Only  a  few 
events  in  his  career  stand  out  from  the  dim 
background ;  only  a  few  facts  and  dates  have 
been  remembered  and  thought  worthy  of  being 


16  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

recorded,  and  diligent  search  for  further  and 
more  accurate  detail  proves  unavailing.  But 
however  indefinite  and  unsatisfactory  biographi- 
cal notices  may  be  in  regard  to  the  events  in 
Le  Tourneur's  life,  they  bear  witness  with  one 
accord  to  the  worth  and  charm  of  his  personal 
character  and  attributes.  Pujos,  his  chief 
biographer,  Sebastien  Mercier,  his  lifelong 
friend,  Ersch,  Sabatier,  and  Desessarts  in  their 
dictionaries  of  biography,  and  finally,  the  con- 
temporary press,  all  unite  in  extolling  him  with 
an  enthusiasm  and  sincerity  which  can  hardly 
be  other  than  genuine.  According  to  their 
testimony,  he  was  a  man  of  upright  character 
and  marked  ability,  gentle  and  modest  in 
manner,  loyal  and  zealous  in  friendship,  con- 
scientious and  assiduous  in  the  performance 
of  duty.  A  letter  by  Mercier,  which  appeared 
in  the  Journal  de  Paris,  Jan.  31,  1788,  is  worth 
quoting  at  length,  both  for  its  sincere  and 
affectionate  eulogy  and  for  its  keen  appreciation 
of  the  value  of  Le  Tourneur's  work. 


LE  TOURNEUR,   THE  MAN  17 

AUX  AUTEURS   DU   JOURNAL 

Paris,  25  Jan.,  1788. 

Messieurs,  —  La  Republique  des  Lettres 
vient  de  perdre  un  Ecrivain  distingue  et  moi 
un  ami  rare.  Les  belles  traductions  d'Young, 
d'Ossian,  de  Shakespeare,  de  Clarisse,  etc.,  ont 
ete  generalement  estimees  et  admirees.  EUes 
ont  imprime  a  la  langue  frangoise  une  force 
particuliere  et  une  precision  nerveuse,  quelque 
chose  enfin,  de  I'accent  anglois.  C'est  la  une 
veritable  conquete  dont  les  Frangais  pourront 
s'enorgueillir.  La  memoire  de  M.  Le  Tourneur 
sera  toujours  honoree  par  les  services  qu'il  a 
rendus  aux  Lettres  en  naturalisant  parmi 
nous  des  Auteurs  etrangers  pleins  de  genie; 
mais  qui  peindra  son  caractere  si  profondement 
sensible,  sa  timidite  interessante,  sa  simplicite 
aimable  qui  le  rapprochoit  dans  la  vie  privee 
du  bon  La  Fontaine?  Qui  revelera  Fenergie 
de  son  ame  dans  les  hautes  circonstances,  sa 
sensibilite  vraie  et  inepuisable,  sa  bonte  dans 
tons  les  instants  de  sa  vie? 

Si  une  liaison  intime  et  non  interrompue 
de  vingt-deux  annees  pent  donner  ce  droit, 
j'aurai   a  parler   de   I'homme   qui   a  le   mieux 


18  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

CPU  a  Tamitie,  qui  a  tout  fait  pour  elle,  qui 
lui  rendoit  une  espece  de  culte ;  et  quand 
j'aurai  prouve  qu'il  fut  Tami  le  plus  tendre 
et  le  plus  indulgent,  je  n'aurai  pas  de  peine 
a  convaincre  qu'il  fut  un  excellent  homme. 

Le  monde  I'a  peu  connu,  sa  vie  laborieuse 
s'est  ecoulee  sous  les  yeux  de  ses  amis,  qui  ont 
joui  exclusivement  des  tresors  de  son  ame ; 
jamais  mortel  ne  fut  plus  doux  et  plus  patient, 
tandis  que  son  style  etoit  fier,  energique  et 
vehement.  II  vecut  des  jours  pleins  pour  les 
Lettres  et  pour  la  Bienfaisance,  voila  ce  que 
la  verity  pourra  graver  sur  son  tombeau.  II 
est  mort  dans  sa  52«  ann^e ;  il  n'etoit  d'aucune 
Academie.     II  laisse  une  veuve,  et  un  fils  ^ge 

^^^^"®-  Signe:  Mercier. 

Pujos  sounds  the  same  note  when  speaking 
of  the  good  qualities  of  Le  Tourneur.  He  was 
a  "  digne  citoyen,  6poux  et  pere  tendre,  ami  le 
plus  zq\6  et  le  plus  constant ;  sensible  aux  maux 
d'autrui,  et  soulageant  le  malheureux,  quand  sa 
situation  le  lui  permettoit,  et,  au  dMaut  des 
secours  pecuniaires,  recevant  avec  attendrisse- 
ment  I'epanchement  de  ses  peines ;  la  bienfai- 
sance  trouve  toujours  a  se  manif ester;  en  un 


LE  TOURNEUR,   THE   MAN  19 

mot,  loin  de  se  montrer  en  contrariete  avec  ses 
Ouvrages,  leur  donnant  un  nouveau  prix,  par  le 
merite  que  THomme  ajoutoit  a  rEcrivain:  tel 
fut  M.  Le  Tourneur,  auquel  survivra  une  repu- 
tation qui  sera,  nous  n'en  doutons  point,  con- 
firmee par  la  Posterite."  Thus  Pujos  concludes 
his  sketch  of  Le  Tourneur's  life,  and  although 
the  fame  of  his  hero  has  hardly  received  from 
posterity  the  recognition  which  he  felt  it  de- 
served, yet  the  memory  of  the  high-minded  and 
conscientious  translator  has  survived,  in  •  spite 
of  the  oblivion  in  vt^hich  the  greater  part  of  his 
works  is  slumbering. 

Like  Corneille,  he  had  in  society  the  candor 
and  the  timidity  of  a  child,  and  his  conversation 
was  as  gentle  as  his  manners.  His  house  was 
the  image  of  peace  and  happiness.  He  was  a 
stranger  to  every  feeling  of  hatred,  jealousy,  or 
ill-will,  far  removed  from  vexatious  ambition 
and  literary  rivalry.  A  tender  husband  and 
father,  a  faithful  and  constant  friend,  he  spent 
calm  and  laborious  days  in  the  company  of  his 
family,  his  friends,  and  the  literary  pursuits  he 
loved.  All  speak  of  him  with  affection  and 
regret,  as  one  whose  charm  and  whose  vir- 
tues were  an  example  to  all  men,  and  whose 


20  PIERRE  LE   TOURNEUR 

work    deserved  to  win    him  a  place    in    the 
Academy. 

Finally,  as  an  epitome  of  the  general  opinion 
upon  Le  Tourneur,  may  be  cited  the  anonymous 
lines  beneath  the  portrait  of  him,  drawn  from 
life,  it  is  said,  by  A.  Pujos,  in  1788:^ 

"Ne  croyant  que  traduire,  il  crea  ses  Ecrits: 
Doux,  sensible  et  modeste,  il  ignora  sa  gloire. 
II  ne  mourra  jamais  au  temple  de  Memoire, 
Ni  dans  le  coeur  de  ses  amis." 

1  There  is  an  engraving  of  this  portrait  in  the  Public 
Library  of  Valognes,  and  a  reproduction  of  it  is  to  be  found 
in  Shakespeare  in  France  under  the  Old  Begime,  by  J.  J. 
Jusserand,  London,  1899,  p.  363.  The  original  is  in  the 
D6partement  des  Estampes,  Bibliothfeque  Nationale,  Paris. 


II.   THE  WRITER  OF  ESSAYS  AND 
EULOGIES 

Although  Le  Tourneur  is  now  remembered 
only  as  a  translator,  at  the  beginning  of  his  lit- 
erary career  he  was  regarded  by  his  contempo- 
raries as  a  promising  writer  of  no  small  original 
ability.  The  serious  and  philosophic  turn  of 
mind,  which  was  so  marked  a  feature  of  his 
college  days,  found  expression  some  years  later 
in  the  publication,  in  1768,  of  a  slender  volume 
of  a  hundred  and  seventy-six  pages,  containing 
three  moral  essays  and  a  eulogy  of  Charles  V.^ 
In  1766  and  1767  the  Academies  of  Mon- 
tauban  and  of  Besangon  offered  prizes  for 
the  best  essays  upon  certain  given  subjects. 
Le  Tourneur  entered  the  lists  as  a  competitor, 
and  his  essays  won  the  offered  reward.  The 
Discours  which  was  "  crowned  "  by  the  Acad- 

1  Discours   moraux   couronnes    dans  les  Academies  de 
Montauhan  et  de  Besan^on  en  1766  et  1767  avec  un  Eloge 
de  Charles  V.  roi  de  France^  par  M^^^,  Paris,  1768,  176  pp. 
Also  reprinted  in  Le  Jardin  Anglois,  Paris,  1788. 
21 


22  PIERRE   LE  TOURNEUR 

emy  of  Montauban  is  the  best  and  most  inter- 
esting of  the  three.  It  discusses,  in  some  forty 
pages,  the  question :  "  Est-il  utile  a  la  Societe 
que  le  Coeur  de  I'homme  soit  un  mystere  ? " 
The  subject  is  treated  with  considerable  skill, 
and  the  style,  though  somewhat  rhetorical,  has 
a  certain  na'ive  earnestness  of  conviction  which 
goes  far  to  enlist  the  sympathy  of  the  reader. 
Le  Tourneur's  answer  to  the  question  is  in  the 
affirmative,  and  his  reason,  briefly  stated,  is  that 
the  minds  of  men  are  too  feeble,  their  self-love 
too  strong,  to  permit  them  to  live  together  in 
peace  and  harmony  if  they  could  read  the  truth 
in  one  another's  hearts.  An  introductory 
statement  of  the  fact  that  man's  knowledge  of 
his  fellow-man  is  at  best  but  obscure  and  shad- 
owy is  followed  by  the  question  of  the  essay, 
and  the  argument  is  carried  on  in  dialogue  form 
between  an  old  man  and  a  youth.  The  young 
man  first  answers  the  question  in  the  negative, 
and,  with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  youth,  sets  forth 
the  crimes  committed,  the  innocent  condemned, 
the  friendships  destroyed,  and  other  evils  of 
society  due  to  men's  ignorance  of  one  another 
—  their  motives,  their  temptations,  their 
struggles.     The  old  man  replies  to  his  ardor: 


THE   WRITER  OF  ESSAYS  AND   EULOGIES      23 

"  Mais,  malgre  les  maux  affreux,  qui  me  font 
hater  vers  le  tombeau,  que  j'entrevois  deja,  mal- 
gre quelques  autres  que  la  conuoissance  parfaite 
du  coeur  de  I'homme  pourroit  peut-etre  prevenir ; 
reste,  jeune  homme,  paisible  et  resigne  dans 
Tobscurite  qui  t'environne.  Crois  qu'elle  est 
necessaire  a  la  Societe.  Crois-en  I'auteur  de  la 
nature.  C'est  pour  notre  bien  qu'il  nous  a  con- 
damnes  tons  a  cette  ignorance  reciproque ;  il  a 
prevu  que  les  coeurs  en  devenant  vicieux  et 
mauvais  devoient  rester  caches  I'un  a  I'autre. 
Crois  en  ta  raison.  Si  tu  I'interroges  dans  le 
silence  de  la  retraite,  elle  te  dira  que  si  les 
coeurs  se  voyoient  mutuellement,  I'amitie,  I'es- 
perance,  I'estime,  tons  les  liens  les  plus  doux  et 
les  plus  forts  qui  unissent  la  Societe  seroient 
brises  ou  affoiblis,  que  la  vertu  j  perdroit,  et 
que  la  Societe  meme  ne  pourroit  gueres  man- 
quer  de  se  dissoudre." 

After  this  grandiloquent  beginning,  the  old 
man  takes  up  each  point  of  his  opponent's  argu- 
ment, one  after  another,  and  proves,  to  his  own 
satisfaction  at  least,  the  diminution  of  virtue, 
the  disappearance  of  friendship  and  esteem,  and 
the  destruction  of  society,  as  the  result  of  man's 
exact  knowledge  of  the   human  heart.     Here 


24  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

and  there  are  phrases  that  ring  like  an  echo  of 
La  Rochefoucauld.^  Yet  the  tone  of  the  essay- 
throughout  is  optimistic,  and  the  effect  of  its 
smoothly  flowing  phrases  is  like  that  of  a  broad 
and  gently  moving  river,  serene  and  calm  under 
a  summer  sun. 

The  other  two  Discours  which  took  prizes  at 
the  Academy  of  Besan9on  in  1766  and  1767 
treat  of  more  ordinary  subjects :  (1)  "  II  im- 
porte  autant  aux  Nations  qu'aux  Particuliers 
d'avoir  une  bonne  reputation."     (2)  "  Combien 

1  "  Les  larmes  que  nous  versons  sur  nos  propres  maux 
sont  bien  plus  brfilantes  que  celles  que  nous  r^pandons  sur 
les  maux  d'autrui." 

"  Nous  aimons  mieux  nous  aveugler  encore  sur  les  autres, 
que  de  les  voir  trop  ^claircis  sur  nous-m§mes.'* 

"  Nous  ne  nous  croyons  parfaits,  que  lorsque  nous  nous 
comparons  aux  autres  ;  d6s  que  nous  ne  regardons  que  nous 
seuls  nous  sentons  malgr^  nous  nos  imperfections." 

"  En  lisant  dans  r§,me  des  autres,  nous  saurions  qu'ils 
lisent  aussi  dans  la  nOtre.  Nous  craignons  bien  plus  d'§tre 
devin6s  que  nous  n'aimons  h.  deviner  les  autres  hommes. 
Leur  surprendre  un  d6faut  n'est  au  plus  qu'un  plaisir  d^licat 
qui  chatouille  notre  orgueil,  mais  §tre  surpris  par  eux  dans 
les  nOtres,  c'est  une  douleur  vive  qui  nous  d^chire  Tame. 
Pourrions-nous  nous  empecher  de  hair  les  tSmoins  oculaires 
et  perp^tuels  de  notre  mis6re  et  de  notre  honte  ?  La  vue 
r^ciproque  de  leurs  vices  et  de  leurs  d^fauts  ne  nous  con- 
soleroit  pas  plus  que  la  vue  d'un  malheureux  n'en  console 
an  autre." 


THE   WRITER   OE  ESSAYS  AND   EULOGIES      25 

le  Courage  d' Esprit  est  necessaire  dans  tous  les 
Etats."  The  first  is  the  more  ambitious  of  the 
two  in  treatment,  consisting  of  a  formal  intro- 
duction and  two  parts.  The  line  of  argument 
is  clear  and  logical,  and,  in  spite  of  a  tendency 
to  rhetoric  and  occasional  bombast,  the  style 
rises  to  moments  of  real  eloquence  and  has 
more  than  one  touch  of  literary  grace.  The 
Introduction  states  the  interdependence  of  men 
and  the  necessity  of  a  good  reputation  in  their 
needs  and  pleasures.  The  First  Part  obviously 
discusses  the  value  of  a  good  reputation  among 
individuals.  It  is  an  aid  in  enjoying  good 
fortune,  in  winning  public  and  private  esteem, 
it  consoles  and  protects  in  misfortune  and  is 
the  necessary  accompaniment  of  virtue.  With 
nations,  a  good  reputation  is  even  more  im- 
portant than  with  individuals,  inasmuch  as 
their  life  is  longer  and  more  complex,  and  their 
influence  more  widespread.  The  treatment  of 
this  statement  occupies  Part  II,  and  the  author 
finds  his  proofs  in  examples  from  history,  which 
he  quotes  with  aptness  and  conviction,  showing 
that  those  nations  with  a  reputation  for  justice, 
virtue,  and  good  faith  have  prospered  and  en- 
dured, while   others  have  fallen  through  their 


26  PIERRE   LE  TOURNEUR 

own  weakness  and  corruption.  The  whole 
essay,  says  the  Journal  des  Savants  (March, 
1771),  may  be  regarded  as  a  refutation  of 
Machiavellism :  "  La  nation  la  plus  juste  doit 
devenir  a  la  fin  la  plus  puissante." 

"  Qu'est-ce  done  que  le  courage  d'esprit  ? " 
asks  Le  Tourneur,  at  the  beginning  of  the  third 
Diseours.  "  Rien  autre  chose,"  he  answers, 
"  que  la  force  de  vouloir  etre  ce  que  nous  sommes 
n^cessairement  par  notre  nature,  en  nous  appuy- 
ant  de  I'intime  conviction  que  la  vertu  est  le 
premier  besoin  de  I'homme.  .  .  .  Vouloir,  c'est 
tout  dans  la  vie."  With  this  as  the  keynote,  he 
develops,  with  a  good  deal  of  ingenuity,  an  al- 
most Epicurean  system  of  philosophy.  Like  a 
good  reputation,  "  le  Courage  d'Esprit "  is  the 
touchstone  of  life,  which  aids  man  in  joy,  con- 
soles him  in  sorrow,  and  inspires  him  to  deeds  of 
heroism.  Towards  the  close  of  the  essay  are 
two  references  to  men  of  letters,  Milton^  and 

1  "  Pauvre,  accabl6  de  maux,  sans  consolation,  sans  appui, 
priv6  de  la  vue  et  des  illusions  charmantes  qui  soutiennent 
la  jeunesse,  c'est  au  sein  des  douleurs  et  de  rinfortune  que 
Milton  dessine  les  boccages  d'iiden.  Son  coeur  fl6tri  par 
les  approches  de  la  mort  n'est  ramenfi  que  par  I'amour  de  la 
gloire.  .  .  .  C'est  au  bord  de  son  tombeau  qu'il  6nge  le 
monument  de  sa  gloire."  p.  119. 


THE   WRITER  OF  ESSAYS  AND  EULOGIES      27 

Voltaire  ^  :  the  former  significant  as  showing  Le 
Tourneur's  acquaintance  with  English  literature 
thus  early  in  his  career ;  the  latter,  interesting  as 
the  first  expression  of  the  admiration  he  always 
manifested  for  his  great  compatriot. 

The  Eloge  de  Charles  V.  roi  de  France^  the 
last  essay  in  the  volume,  competed  for  a  prize 
offered  by  the  French  Academy  in  1767.  Le 
Tourneur  failed  in  this  contest,  the  prize  being 
actually  won  by  La  Harpe,^  although  success 
was  attributed  to  him  by  at  least  one  enthusi- 
astic journal.^  Both  writers  follow  practically 
the  same  line  of  argument.  Each  eulogy  is  di- 
vided formally  into  an  Introduction  and  two  parts, 
and  each  discusses  Charles  V.  under  the  double 

1  "Et  toi,  I'honneur  de  la  France  et  de  ton  si^cle,  r6- 
ponds  :  immortel  Voltaire,  quand  tu  arrivas  k  cet  §,ge,  sans 
doute  pr^matur^  pour  toi,  ou  I'homme  commence  k  se  juger 
lui-mgme,  et  k  connoitre  la  mesure  de  ses  facult^s,  pret 
k  parcourir  ton  immense  carri^re,  ne  juras-tu  point  dans 
ton  coeur  de  remplir  avec  courage  la  sublime  t§,che  que 
t'imposoient  la  nature  et  ton  gdnie  ?  Combien  de  fois  le 
courage  a-t-il  affermi  dans  tes  mains  les  pinceaux  de  la 
Podsie  et  le  burin  de  I'Histoire  que  I'envie  en  fureur  vouloit 
t'arracher?"  p.  119. 

2  Eloge  de  Charles  V.  Boi  de  France  qui  a  remporte  le 
Prix  de  VAcademie  fran(^oise  en  1767^  par  M.  de  la  Harpe, 
Paris,  1767. 

3  Journal  Encyclopedique,  October,  1768. 


28  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

aspect  of  Restorer  and  Protector  of  his  people. 
That  of  Le  Tourneur  is,  on  the  whole,  less 
spontaneous  and  more  labored  in  style  than  his 
Discours  Moraux,  less  interesting  and  less  con- 
vincing than  that  of  La  Harpe.  Le  Tourneur 
falls  here  frequently  into  his  favorite  vice  of  fine 
writing  and  the  interest  occasionally  flags,  lost 
in  a  maze  of  detail.  He  seems  to  struggle,  by 
the  use  of  flamboyant  language  and  rhetorical 
apostrophe,  to  express  an  eloquence  which  lie 
does  not  feel,  and  to  atone  for  his  own  lack  of 
conviction  by  an  atmosphere  of  almost  hysteri- 
cal hero-worship.  The  following  lines  will  show 
one  of  his  attempts  at  eloquence  : 

"  L'astre  de  I'Univers  nous  emporte  autour  de 
lui  sur  la  terre,  nous  nous  croyons  independans, 
nous  nous  sentons  detaches  du  globe  lumineux 
qui  nous  meut  avec  le  notre.  Ainsi  Charles  par 
un  mouvement  insensible,  entraina  constamment 
les  Francois  vers  le  bonheur.  Le  flambeau  de 
sa  vie,  en  s'eteignant,  alluma  celui  de  la  gloire 
sur  sa  tombe,  il  y  a  vequ  le  salaire  des  Rois  dans 
les  larmes  de  son  Peuple." 

The  Introduction,  which  is  the  best  part  of 
the  Essay,  is  rather  far-fetched,  but  perhaps 
quaint  enough  in  conception  to  warrant  summa- 


THE  WRITER  OF  ESSAYS  AND  EULOGIES     29 

rizing.  In  Egypt,  begins  Le  Tourneur,  it  was 
the  custom,  at  the  death  of  a  ruler,  for  a  tribunal 
to  assemble  and  pronounce  judgment  upon  his 
life  and  reign.  If  he  were  declared  wise  and 
beneficent,  his  remains  were  buried  with  pomp 
and  glory,  and  there  was  written  on  his  tomb : 
"  Here  he  continues  to  reign."  If,  on  the  con- 
trary, he  had  been  unjust  and  cruel,  his  body  was 
destroyed  and  his  name  became  a  byword  of 
dishonor.  This  custom,  though  unperceived  and 
generally  unknown,  survives  among  us  to-day. 
Truth  is  the  tribunal  which  observes  the  sover- 
eigns of  the  world  as  they  pass,  pronounces  judg- 
ment upon  them,  and  hands  their  names  on  to 
History  to  be  preserved  with  everlasting  glory  or 
shame.  Truth  has  passed  judgment  upon  Charles 
V.  and  proclaimed  him  sage.  "  C'est  elle  qui 
appelle  encore  aujourd'hui  les  Arts  pour  rendre 
dans  leur  Temple  un  hommage  public  a  leur  pre- 
mier Protecteur,  au  Restaurateur  de  la  France." 
But  perhaps  the  most  noteworthy  thing  in 
the  essay  is  the  concluding  lines,  in  which  Le 
Tourneur  makes  a  significant  criticism  upon  the 
system  of  education  which  he  had  received. 
After  naively  expressing  the  hope  that  if  his 
Eulogy  does  not  receive  the  prize,  the  winner 


80  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

will  be  at  least  a  Frenchman,  and  not  a  fore^'gner, 
he  concludes: 

"  Ce  Sage  me  fut  longtems  inconnu  !  Vous 
qui  fatiguiez  ma  jeune  memoire  des  noms  des 
conquerans  et  des  Tyrans  de  Rome,  vous  ne 
m'aviez  point  prononce  son  nom." 

This  Eulogy,  as  well  as  the  Biscours  Moraux, 
was  favorably  received  by  the  public,  and 
highly  commended  by  contemporary  critics.^ 
The  young  author  had  every  encouragement  to 
continue,  but,  with  the  exception  of  one  slight 
sketch,  it  was  not  until  ten  years  later  that  he 
again  entered  the  field  of  literature  as  a  dis- 
tinctly original  writer. 

In  1766  there  appeared  in  the  NScrologie  des 

Hommea  celebres^  an  "Eloge  de  Clairaut"  ^  the 
* 

1  "L'auteur  s^ait  r^fl^chir,  il  S9ait  penser,  il  s^ait  6crire  ; 
il  m^rite  les  plus  grands  encouragements,  et  parmi  ceux  qui 
briguent  les  couronnes  acad^niiques,  11  en  est  peu  qui  soient 
entr^s  dans  cette  carriers  avec  plus  de  talent." — Annee 
Litteraire,  July  7,  1768. 

"  M.  M"^  m^rite  des  61oges,  puisque  sans  gtre  ni  diffus 
ni  trop  concis,  il  a  eu  Part  d'^puiser  ses  sujets  sans  tomber 
dans  la  prolixity,  de  ne  laisser  au  Lecteur  rien  k  d^sirer  sans 
cependant  en  dire  trop,  et  de  descendre  dans  les  plus  grands 
details  sans  cesser  d'§tre  inte'ressaut. " — Journal  Enqfclo- 
pidique^  October,  1768. 

2  Necrologie  des  Homines  celebres  de  France,  Paris,  1766. 
«  Alexis  Claude  Clairaut  (1713-1765),  mathematician  and 


THE  WRITER  OF  ESSAYS  AND  EULOGIES      31 

celebrated  mathematician,  which  may  be  Le 
Tourneur's  first  published  attempt  at  literary 
composition.  It  is  a  slight,  colorless  sketch  of 
the  life  and  work  of  Clairaut  and  would  de- 
serve only  a  word  of  mention  were  it  not  for  a 
possible  doubt  as  to  its  authorship.  In  the 
Necrologie  it  is  attributed  to  M.  Fontaine,  prob- 
ably Fontaine-Malherbe,  who  wrote  for  the 
same  volume  a  eulogy  of  Carl  van  Loo,  the 
painter.  The  same  article,  however,  with  slight 
verbal  changes  and  abridgments,^  is  reprinted  in 
Le  Jardin  Anglois^^  a  posthumous  work  of  Le 
Tourneur.  In  the  matter  of  internal  evidence 
the  weight  of  proof  is  slightly  in  favor  of  Le 
Tourneur,  although  this  slender  sketch  shows 
less  marked  characteristics  of  style  than  a  more 
ambitious  work.  However,  inasmuch  as  Fon- 
taine was  already  a  successful  contributor  to 
the  Necrologies  it  seems  not  improbable  that  if 

astronomer,  friend  of  Maupertuis  and  Mme.  du  Chatelet, 
Member  of  Academies  of  Paris,  London,  Berlin,  author  of 
Elements  of  Geometry^  Algebra^  etc. 

1  The  "Eloge  de  Clairaut"  in  the  Necrologie  contains 
some  mediocre  verses  said  to  be  addressed  to  Clairaut  by 
Voltaire,  and  omitted  in  Le  Jardin  Anglois. 

2  Le  Jardin  Anglois,  Paris,  1788,  Vol.  I.  Also  attributed 
to  Le  Tourneur  by  Ersch,  La  France  Litteraire,  1811,  article 
"Le  Tourneur." 


32  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

the  two  were  friends, ^  the  essay  might  be  by  Le 
Tourneur,  even  though  printed  under  the  name 
of  another  —  a  custom  not  uncommon  at  the 
time.  Moreover,  it  seems  unlikely  that  so  zeal- 
ous a  friend  as  Le  Tourneur's  biographer,  Pujos, 
who  wrote  the  Preface  for  Le  Jardin  Angloisy 
should  have  been  ignorant  of  the  authorship  of 
the  article,  and  should  have  consented  to  the 
publication  in  the  works  of  his  hero  of  so 
trivial  an  essay  by  another. 

The  year  following  the  publication  of  the 
Discours  Moraux^  Le  Tourneur  began  the  work 
of  translation  which  was  to  occupy  him  for  the 
rest  of  his  life.  Ten  years  afterwards,  remem- 
bering perhaps  his  first  success,  he  paused  long 
enough  in  his  translation  of  Shakespeare  to 
publish  in  1778  an  Eloge  du  Marechal  du  Muy? 
which  won  him  another  prize,  this  time  at  the 
Academy  of  Marseilles.  It  is  a  distinct  ad- 
vance in  style  and  composition  upon  the  Eloge 

1  Fontaine-Malherbe  was  associated  with  Le  Tourneur  in 
the  work  of  the  first  two  volumes  of  the  translation  of 
Shakespeare,  1776. 

2  ^loge  de  M.  le  Marechal  du  Muy,  qui  a  remporte  le  prix 
du  jugement  de  VAcademie  de  Marseille,  le  25  aoUt  1778, 
par  M.  Le  Tourneur.  Bruxelles  et  Paris,  1778,  p.  159.  Also 
reprinted  in  Le  Jardin  Anglois,  Paris,  1788,  Vol.  II. 


THE  WRITER  OF  ESSAYS  AND  EULOGIES     33 

de  Charles  V.  The  story  of  Du  Muy's  life  is 
told  with  simplicity,  clearness,  and  directness. 
The  charm  of  his  personality,  his  singleness  of 
purpose,  his  valor,  his  virtues,  his  deep  religious 
feeling,  his  disinterested  devotion,  like  a  second 
Agricola,  to  the  Dauphin  and  to  his  country, 
are  brought  out  with  singular  distinctness  and 
persuasive  eloquence.  The  whole  eulogy  is  as 
clear-cut  as  a  cameo  ;  it  is  like  a  curious  antique 
gem  in  an  old-fashioned  setting.  The  closing 
lines  may  be  cited  as  an  example  of  Le  Tour- 
neur's  skill  in  peroration: 

"Vertueux  du  Muy,  homme  de  bien,  c'est 
sous  ce  titre  que  ton  nom  sera  consacre  dans  les 
fastes  de  notre  Histoire,  il  suivra  nos  derniers 
Neveux  dans  une  eternelle  societe,  le  nom  du 
Prince  a  qui  tu  fus  devoue:  ta  memoire  sera 
toujours  chere  a  son  auguste  Fils,  que  tu  as 
servi  trop  peu  de  tems;  mais  ton  ame  immor- 
telle le  sert  encore  aupres  de  I'Etre  supreme. 
Oui,  du  haut  des  Cieux  ou  tu  as  rejoint  son 
auguste  Pere,  tu  t'interesses  toujours  avec  lui 
au  bonheur  de  la  France ;  tons  deux  vous  con- 
tinuez  d'inspirer  le  coeur  du  jeune  Roi  qui 
nous  promet  le  regne  des  Moeurs,  des  Lois 
et  de  la  Religion,  tous  deux  vous   contemplez 


84  PIERRE  LE   TOURNEUR 

d'un  regard  satisfait  les  transports  naissans 
de  la  Nation  dans  I'Esperance  prochaine  d'un 
Heritier  qui  rassemble  les  vertus  de  TAyeul 
et  du  Pere.  Si  le  ciel  daigne  I'accorder  a  nos 
voeux  nous  n'aurons  plus  qu'une  priere  a  lui 
adresser  sur  son  berceau :  nous  lui  demanderons 
encore  un  Sage  tel  que  Du  Muy  pour  former 
sa  jeunesse,  et  un  Trone  toujours  entoure  de 
Ministres  qui  lui  ressemblent." 

This  eulogy,  slight  and  simple  though  it  is, 
stands  unique  among  Le  Tourneur's  works. 
With  the  exception  of  the  Shakespeare  quarrel, 
it  called  forth  the  only  unfavorable  criticism  to 
be  found  anywhere  among  his  contemporaries 
during  his  entire  literary  career  of  twenty 
years.  The  eulogy  was  reviewed  and  warmly 
commended  in  a  letter  to  the  Correspondance 
secrete^  politique  et  littiraire  in  Noveinber, 
1778.^  On  Dec.  19  appeared,  in  the  same  peri- 
odical,2  a  scathing  criticism  of  it,  apparently 
by  one  of  those  "  enemies  whom  it  is  impossible 
to  be  without,"  in  the  words  of  the  astute 
Pujos.     That  the  satire   was    prompted  by   a 

1  Correspondance  secrete^  politique  et  litteraire^  London, 
1787,  18  vols.,  Vol.  VII.  p.  109,  Nov.  14,  1778. 

2  Ibid,  19,  December,  1778,  in  La  Fetaudiere^  p.  179. 


THE  WEITER  OF  ESSAYS  AND  EULOGIES     35 

spirit  of  carping  criticism,  rather  than  by  a 
desire  to  be  impartially  and  keenly  just,  may  be 
seen  by  a  few  amusing  examples.  Le  Tourneur 
had  dedicated  his  eulogy  to  Madame  la  Marechale 
du  Muy,  beginning  in  the  following  terms: 

"  Madame,  C'est  a  vous  que  je  dois  offrir  la 
couronne  accordee  a  cette  foible  esquisse,  jugee 
la  plus  ressemblante  a  I'homme  vertueux  que  la 
France  regrette  avec  vous.  L'hommage  public 
et  sincere  que  j'ai  rendu  a  sa  memoire  appartient 
aussi  h,  la  tendre  et  vertueuse  epouse  qui  lui 
survit." 

"La  premiere  phrase  seule,"  says  the  critic, 
"  invite  a  fermer  le  livre.  Quelle  est  la  couronne 
accordee  d  F esquisse  de  M.  Le  Tourneur?  Ne 
sont-ce  pas  la  medaille  et  les  lauriers  qui  Taccom- 
pagnent?  Ce  n'est  pas  la  cependant,  ce  que 
rOrateur  offre  a  Madame  la  Marechale.  II  n'a 
done  pas  dit  ce  qu'il  vouloit  dire.  C'est  I'es- 
quisse  qui  a  obtenu  la  couronne  qu'il  presente 
a  Madame  du  Muy,  et  non  la  couronne  accordee 
a  I'Esquisse.  Ce  qui  suit  n'est  guere  plus 
heureux.  Qui  lui  survit,  est  de  trop ;  car,  si 
vous  dediez  a  Madame  du  Muy  I'eloge  de  son 
mari  mort,  il  est  evident  qn'elle  lui  survit. 
L'usage   n'est  pas  de  dedier  ses  ouvrages   aux 


36  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

morts.  .  .  .  Voyons  I'esquisse  et  gardens  nous 
de  nous  appesantir  sur  les  details.  .  .  .  Voici  le 
commencement : 

" '  Combien  d'hommes  celebres  chez  qui  la 
gloire  ou  la  vertu  ne  f urent  qu'un  hasard ! ' 

"  Je  crois  que  le  mot  hasard  qui  est  tres  bien 
applique  a  la  gloire^  convient  tres  mal  a  la  vertu^ 
et  que  cette  pensee  ainsi  exprimee  n'est  pas 
vraie.  '  Sans  la  fortune  qui  fit  la  moitie  de 
Toeuvre,  sans  les  passions  qui  exalterent  leur 
courage  et  les  eleverent  par  intervalle  au-dessus 
d'eux  memes,  ils  auroient  vecu  sans  merite  et 
seroient  morts  sans  renommee/ 

"  Qui  fit  la  moitU  de  Vceuvre  est  trivial  et  le 
reste  ne  presente  rien  que  de  commun.  Qui 
ne  sait  pas  que  sans  les  passions,  I'homme  est 
nul?  Et  c'est  precisement  ce  que  I'orateur  a 
delaye  en  trois  lignes  glaciales.  Plus  bas,  on 
voit  une  lacune  immense  et  sterile  qui  rCa  rien 
produit,^  Je  desirerois  savoir  quelles  sont  les 
lacunes  fecondes  et  si  le  mot  sterile  dit  moins 
que  qui  rCa  rien  produit,     Voila  ce  qu'on   ne 

1  "  Le  cours  de  leur  vie  est  sem6  de  quelques  actions 
^clatantes ;  tout  le  reste  de  I'espace  qu'ils  ont  parcouru, 
pr^ente  une  lacune  immense  et  sterile  qui  n'a  rien  produit 
ou  que  le  vice  a  fouill^e." 


f  UNn/E:^S!TY  ) 


^ITER  OF  ESSAYS  AND  EULOGIES     37 

craint    pas    d'appeler     aujourd'hui    de    Telo- 
quence." 

The  critic  continues  in  this  way,  attacking  the 
unfortunate  eulogy,  word  by  word,  phrase  by 
phrase,  until  the  editor,  who  is  apparently  quite 
out  of  sympathy  with  his  contributor,  apologeti- 
cally spares  the  reader  the  last  seven  pages. 
In  spite  of  this  single  voice  of  protest,  how- 
ever, Le  Tourneur's  fame,  which  was  then  well 
established  by  his  esteemed  translations  of 
Young  and  Shakespeare,  suffered  no  diminution. 
He  did,  indeed,  give  up  original  work,  but  he 
had  already  been  engaged  for  ten  years  in  the 
interpretation  of  English  literature  rather  than 
in  contributions  to  his  own.  Absorbed  as  he 
was  more  and  more  deeply  in  the  work  of 
translation,  it  was  not  until  ten  years  more  had 
passed  that  he  took  time  for  another  original 
essay,  which  was  published  shortly  after  his 
death. 

The  Voyage  a  Ermenonville  was  written  to 
serve  as  preface  to  an  edition  of  Rousseau, 
published    by    Poingot    in     1788.1     The    first 

1  Voyage  a  Ermenonville^  par  feu  M.  Le  Tourneur  pour 
servir  de  Preface.  CEuvres  completes  de  J.  J.  Rousseau, 
Poin50t.    Paris,  1788,  Vol.  I.  pp.  60-176. 


88  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

volume  contains  an  introduction  by  Mercier, 
who  was  a  lifelong  and  intimate  friend  of  Le 
Tourneur,  and  it  seems  probable  that  the 
sketch  was  undertaken  at  his  suggestion.  It  is 
an  account  of  the  author's  visit  to  the  tomb  of 
Rousseau  in  the  company  of  two  Englishmen 
whom  he  had  met  in  Bourgogne.  He  acceded 
willingly  to  their  invitation  to  accompany  them 
in  the  capacity  of  friend  and  guide  :  "  curieux 
d'etre  temoin  des  impressions  que  feroit  la  vue 
de  ce  lieu  sur  I'ame  dedaigneuse  d'un  Anglois, 
d'autant  plus  curieux  que  mes  deux  nouveaux 
compagnons  de  voyage  savoient  sentir  et 
s'exprimer  dans  notre  langue  et  qu'ils  ne  man- 
quoient  ni  d'imagination  ni  de  sensibilite."  ^ 

An  interesting  discussion  as  to  the  relative 
merits  of  French  and  English  landscape  garden- 
ing takes  place  at  Chantilly,  where  the  travelera 
spend  a  night  on  their  way  to  Ermenonville. 
The  Frenchman,  after  vainly  trying  to  convince 
his  companions  of  the  superiority  of  the  French 
garden,  suggests  a  combination  of  the  two 
styles  as  a  perfect  model.  Finding  that  even 
this  generous  compromise  is  only  half-heart- 
edly received,  he  takes  refuge  in  good-natured 
1  p.  61. 


THE   WKITER   OF  ESSAYS  AND  EULOGIES      39 

raillery,  and  declares  that  each  style  of  garden 
is  but  the  expression  of  the  national  character. 

"  Celui  du  Francois  dans  ses  jardins  me  sem- 
ble  assez  analogue  h,  son  humeur  et  a  son  moral. 
Franc,  ouvert,  ne  deguisant  rien,  impatient,  il 
aime  a  offrir  a  la  fois  aux  regards  tout  ce  qu'il 
a  de  richesse  et  de  magnificence :  leger  et  vo- 
lage,  il  aime  a  embrasser  tout  d'un  coup  d'oeil, 
comme  un  mot  devoile  toute  son  ame,  comme  sa 
confiance  se  donne  en  un  moment  a  la  physio- 
nomie  a  laquelle  il  se  previent.  L'Anglois,  au 
contraire,  moins  communicatif,  plus  sombre,  plus 
ferme,  se  cache  et  se  retire  dans  les  ombres  et 
les  detours ;  il  ne  s'ouvre  a  la  confiance  et  ne  se 
laisse  penetrer  que  par  degres ;  il  faut  du  tems 
pour  parcourir  tout  son  interieur.  Ses  jardins 
sont  comme  son  ame.  Le  Frangois  met  tout 
dehors  sous  I'ceil  de  I'etranger :  I'Anglois  ne  se 
montre  et  ne  se  developpe  que  piece  a  piece."  ^ 

The  rest  of  the  sketch  consists  of  a  detailed 
description  of  the  gardens  of  Ermenonville,  to- 
gether with  an  account  of  Rousseau's  installa- 
tion there  and  his  last  moments,  related  by  a 
guide  at  the  request  of  the  Englishmen,  who 
are  so  profoundly  impressed  with  all  they  see 
ip.  86. 


40  PIERRE   LE  TOURNEUR 

and  hear  that  they  preserve  a  reverent  silence, 
and  thus  relieve  Le  Tourneur  of  the  labor  of 
noting  down  their  sentiments.^ 

"  L'ame  occupee  et  agreablement  affectee " 
will  perhaps  be  the  effect  also  upon  the  modern 
reader  of  this  pleasantly  written  essay.  Like 
the  moral  essays  and  the  eulogies,  it  has  the 
delicate,  individual  charm  of  an  old-fashioned 
garden,  an  atmosphere  like  the  perfume  of 
lavender  and  old  lace.  Besides  its  intrinsic 
value,  it  reveals  one  or  two  interesting  facts 
concerning  the  author.  He  speaks  in  the  be- 
ginning of  having  known  Rousseau  person- 
ally.^ This,  of  course,  is  possible,  but  it  is 
the  only  reference  to  be  found  concerning 
the  acquaintance.     He  had  been  in  Bourgogne ; 

1  "Le  lecteur  qui  ne  trouve  plus  de  reflexions  de  mes 
deux  Anglois  jugera  ais^ment  par  leur  silence  que  leur  ame 
6toit  occup6e  et  agreablement  affectee."     p.  136. 

2  "  Je  ne  me  vanterai  point  d'avoir  ete  son  ami,  mais  je 
I'avois  vu  de  tems  en  tems  dansle  cours  de  quatre  ann^es, 
tantOt  dans  la  society,  tant6t  sous  I'humble  toil  de  son 
quatri6me  dtage ;  et  quoique  cette  liaison,  tout  respect  de 
ma  part  et  de  la  sienne  estime  et  bienveillance,  ait  brusque- 
ment  lini  par  un  proc^de  bizarre  d'apr6s  les  regies  sociales 
mais  sans  doute  consequent  k  ses  principes  ou  k  ses  foiblesses, 
je  n'en  fus  que  surpris  un  moment  sans  §tre  offense,  et  je 
conserverai  toujours  une  juste  admiration  pour  son  genie,  et 
un  tendre  sentiment  pour  sa  personne."    p.  1. 


THE  WRITER  OE  ESSAYS  AND  EULOGIES     41 

he  probably  did  not  speak  English,  since  the 
party  conversed  in  French,  and  apparently  had 
not  visited  England.  ^  The  style  of  the  essay, 
the  turn  of  phrase,  the  general  atmosphere 
throughout,  is  very  like  Le  Tourneur,  yet  it 
is  possible  that  it  was  not  original  with  him, 
but  was  the  translation  or  imitation  of  some- 
thing he  had  read  in  English.  The  reason  for 
doubt  is  a  note,  presumably  by  the  editor,  at 
the  end  of  the  essay:  "II  paroit  que  I'auteur 
anglois  du  Voyage  d  Ermenonville  a  induit  en 
erreur  I'imitateur  frangois.  La  statue  equestre 
qui  se  voit  a  Chantilly  et  dont  il  est  question 
a  la  page  81  n'est  point  celle  du  due  de  Mont- 
morency, etc."  (G.  B.)2 

It  seems  probable,  however,  that  the  note 
itself  is  a  mistake,  and  that  for  auteur  anglois^ 
should  be  read  personnage  anglois.  For  it  is 
unlikely  that  an  English  writer  should  speak 
in  the  person  of  a  Frenchman  accompanying 
two  Englishmen,  as  does  the  author  of  this 
sketch,   that    he   should    characterize   his    own 

1  "  Je  n'ai  point  vu  leurs  jardins  fameux  ni  Stowe  ni 
Blenheim."    p.  91. 

2  "  Cette  statue  (spoken  by  milord)  gquestre  que  voil^ 
devant  le  palais  est  celle  de  ce  conn^table  fait  prisonnier  ^ 
la  bataille  de  Castelnaudary  et  d^capit^  h>  Toulouse."    p.  81. 


42  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

nation  as  dedaigneuse,  and  should  uphold  with 
such  warmth  the  value  of  French  gardens,  etc. 
But  if,  nevertheless,  the  essay  was  by  an  Eng- 
lish writer,  it  was  doubtless  very  freely  ren- 
dered or  adapted  by  Le  Tourneur  until,  for 
all  practical  purposes,  it  became  an  original 
composition.  However  it  may  be,  the  Voyage 
a  Ermenonville  was  the  last  original  work  at- 
tributed to  Le  Tourneur  and  published  sepa- 
rately from  his  translations.  That  his  original 
literary  output  was  so  small  must  be  a  matter 
of  regret  to  the  modern  world  as  it  was  to  his 
contemporaries.  The  sincerity  of  his  feeling, 
the  breadth  and  tolerance  of  his  views,  the 
clearness  and  keenness  of  his  judgment,  his 
gift  of  insight  and  literary  appreciation,  might 
easily,  it  would  seem,  have  won  him  a  place 
and  a  name  in  the  history  of  oratory  or  criti- 
cism. 


III.  THE  INTERPRETER  OF  THE 
ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF  MELAN- 
CHOLY: TRANSLATIONS  OF  YOUNG, 
HERVEY,  AND   OSSIAN 

The  Discours  Moraux  of  1768  had  attracted 
considerable  attention  and  received  much  fa- 
vorable comment.  Le  Tourneur  was  already 
talked  of  in  literary  circles  as  a  rising  young 
author  who  was  destined  to  make  a  name  for 
himself  in  the  world  of  letters.  It  is  not  im- 
probable that,  if  he  had  continued  to  follow  the 
path  upon  which  he  had  entered,  he  might  have 
come  down  to  posterity  as  an  eloquent  orator 
or  critical  essayist.  But  unfortunately  for  the 
hopes  of  his  friends,  Le  Tourneur  was  caught 
in  the  great  flood  of  enthusiasm  for  English 
literature  which  swept  over  France  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  was 
at  its  height  between  1760  and  1789.  He  was 
straightway  converted  from  an  essayist  to  a 
43 


44  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

translator  and  on  his  translations  rests  what- 
ever fame  he  may  enjoy  to-day. 

As  early  as  1767  he  was  acquainted  with 
the  work  of  Milton,  and  had  probably  even 
then  made  fugitive  translations  from  Paradise 
Lost,  which  were  later  incorporated  in  the  post- 
humous Jardin  Anglois, 

The  year  following  the  appearance  of  the 
Discours  Moraux,  Le  Tourneur  published  his 
first  translations,  two  slight  sketches,  entitled : 
La  Jeune  fills  seduite  and  Le  Courtisan  Hermite.^ 
From  this  as  a  starting-point,  he  practically 
abandoned  the  field  of  original  composition  which 
he  had  just  so  successfully  entered,  and  later  in 
the  same  year  leaped  with  one  bound  into  fame 
and  glory  by  his  translation  of  the  Night  Thoughts 
of  Edward  Young.  This  change  of  work  on 
his  part  is  not  surprising  in  view  of  the  Anglo- 
mania which  was  then  the  fashion,  and  the 
business  of  interpretation  not  only  favored  the 
current  of  popular  taste,  but  afforded  the  aspirant 
to  literary  honors  a  rapid,  if  laborious,  road  to 
reputation. 

Le  Tourneur's    first   attempt  at  translation 

1  La  Jeune  Jille  seduite  et  Le  Courtisan  Hermitej  traduites 
de  I'Anglois  par  M.  Le  Tourneur,  Paris,  1709,  p.  61. 


THE  ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF  MELANCHOLY     45 

brought  him  favor,  but  not  fame.  La  Jeune 
fille  seduite  and  Le  Courtisan  Hermite  are  short 
moral  tales  whose  subjects  are  perhaps  suffi- 
ciently indicated  by  their  titles.  Almost  entirely 
without  local  color  or  marked  characteristics  of 
style,  it  has  been  impossible  to  discover  the  Eng- 
lish originals  among  the  countless  similar  tales 
which  filled  the  periodicals  of  the  day.  The  first 
relates  the  story  of  a  young  girl  led  astray  by 
the  woman  to  whose  charge  she  had  been  con- 
fided. After  years  of  a  life  of  shame,  she  retires 
with  lost  beauty  and  shattered  health  to  Tun- 
bridge,  where  she  resolves  to  write  her  story  as 
a  warning  to  others  of  her  sex.  In  Le  Courtisan 
Hermite  an  aged  courtier  tells  Polydore,  a  youth 
who  passes  his  retreat,  by  chance,  the  story  of 
his  disillusionment  at  court  and  his  withdrawal 
from  the  world.  His  closing  words,  quoted  with 
favorable  comment  by  leading  journals,^  will 
give  an  example  both  of  the  moral  tone  and  of 
the  style. 

"Quelque  situation,  quelque  genre  de  vie 
que  vous  desiriez,  et  que  vous  vous  proposiez 
de  vous  procurer,  ne  vous  laissez   pas   seduire 

1  L'^Avant  Coureur,  September,  1769 ;  Mercurede  France, 
September,  1769. 


46  PIERRE   LE  TOURNEUR 

par  les  avantages  qu'il  vous  promet  et  songez  a 
vous  faire  une  idee  claire  et  distincte  de  tous 
les  desagrements  qui  y  sont  attaches.  Moi, 
apres  un  mois  d'experience,  j'ai  dedaigne,  j'ai 
rejete  avec  degout  ce  meme  poste  que  j'avois 
employe  toute  ma  vie  a  desirer  et  a  obtenir." 

Not  least  in  interest  among  the  phases  of 
English  life  and  thought  which  attracted  French 
Anglomaniacs  was  the  so-called  Grave  Yard 
School  of  poets,  or  the  literature  of  melancholy, 
represented  by  the  writings  of  Gray,  Milton,  Col- 
lins, and  Young.  In  France  the  way  had  been 
prepared  for  the  appreciation  of  such  literature, 
first  by  the  translation  of  Richardson's  senti- 
mental novels,  then  by  the  work  of  the  sensi- 
tive, romantic,  and  mystic  Rousseau.  Thus,  in 
1760,  the  appearance  of  a  small  volume  entitled: 
Penses  Angloises  sur  divers  sujets  de  religion  et 
de  morale,^  a  series  of  reflections  drawn  from  the 
Night  Thoughts  of  Edward  Young,  was  cordially 
received.  The  taste  for  meditations  upon  death 
and  immortality  was  encouraged  by  literary 
men,  who,  seeing  which  way  the  wind  of  public 
desire  was  blowing,  hastened  to  set  their  sails  in 
that  direction  and  to  follow  this  newly  acquired 
1  Amsterdam,  1700. 


THE  ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF  MELANCHOLY     47 

fashion.  In  1762  the  Comte  de  Bissy,  a  member  ^ 
of  the  French  Academy  and  lieutenant-general 
of  Languedoc,  made  a  translation  of  the  first 
Night  Thought^  which  was  published  in  the 
Journal  Etr anger.  This  met  with  instant  and 
phenomenal  success,  and  was  the  first  of  a 
series  of  translations  of  one  or  more  Nights  in  a 
spirited  rivalry  among  literary  men  as  to  who 
should  be  the  first  or  best  interpreter  of  the 
melancholy  poet.  Such  an  increase  of  interest 
prepared  the  way  for  an  enthusiastic  reception 
of  the  complete  translation  of  the  Night 
Thoughts^  and  Le  Tourneur,  whose  serious  and 
contemplative  spirit  was  naturally  attracted 
by  the  gloomy  and  philosophic  meditations  of 
Young,  set  to  work  to  gratify  the  public  desire. 
In  1769  appeared  the  Nuits  d^Young^  and  in  the 
following  year,  his  (Euvres  diverses.  The  suc- 
cess of  this  work  was  very  great,  its  reception 
most  cordial,  and  its  influence  remarkable,  in 
view  of  its  character  and  subject.  Although 
followed  by  a  host  of  other  translations  more 

1  Les  Nuits  cZ'  Young,  traduites  de  I'Anglois  par  M.  Le 
Tourneur,  Paris,  1769,  2  vols. 

The  Nuits  were  sold  for  20  louis  (gold)  to  Mme.  Ducron6, 
who  made  60,000  livres  out  of  the  transaction. —  Curiosites 
Bibliographiques,  L.  Lalanne,  Paris,  1845,  p.  358. 


48  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

or  less  complete,  it  remained  the  most  popular, 
the  most  widely  known,  and  was  the  standard 
translation  of  Edward  Young  as  long  as  he  was 
read  in  France. 

The  translation  was  preceded  by  a  curious  and 
interesting  Discours  preliminaire  of  some  sixty 
pages,  in  which  Le  Tourneur  relates  the  life  of 
Young,  enlarges  upon  his  virtues  as  a  man  and 
his  beauties  as  a  poet,  states  his  own  reason  for 
undertaking  the  work,  and  explains  his  method 
of  translation.  The  modern  reader,  not  greatly 
interested,  perhaps,  either  in  Young's  Night 
Thoughts  in  English  for  their  own  sake,  nor  in 
a  French  translation  of  them,  will  yet  find  pleas- 
ure in  reading  this  introductory  essay,  not  only 
for  the  quaint  charm  of  its  old-fashioned,  pom- 
pous style,  but  also  for  the  revelation  of  the  naive 
and  earnest  spirit  of  the  author  and  the  literary 
methods  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Le  Tourneur  was  happily  endowed  with  one 
of  the  qualities  most  necessary  in  a  pioneer.  He 
believed  thoroughly  in  the  value  of  his  work; 
an  enthusiastic  hero-worship  of  whatever  author 
he  happened  to  be  translating  at  the  time  is 
characteristic  of  all  his  critical  prefaces,  and  is 
so  contagious  as  to  communicate  itself,  in  some 


THE  ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF   MELANCHOLY     49 

degree,  to  the  reader,  almost  before  he  is  aware. 
The  opening  sentences  of  this  Discours  are  no 
exception  to  the  rule : 

"  Si  Edward  Young  n'eut  ete  qu'un  habile 
theologien  d'Angleterre,  sa  vie  interesseroit  peu 
la  posterite.  Le  merite  du  docteur  est  ignore 
de  I'Europe  et  deja  oublie,  dans  sa  patrie ;  mais 
le  grand  poete,  I'ecrivain  original  est  sur  d'ac- 
compagner  a  Timmortalite  les  Swift,  les  Shaftes- 
bury, les  Pope,  les  Addison,  les  Richardson  dont 
11  fut  ou  I'ami  ou  I'associe  litteraire.  II  eut  part 
au  celebre  ouvrage  du  Spectateur.  II  a  survecu 
le  dernier  de  ce  groupe  d'auteurs  fameux  qui 
ont  illustre  I'Angleterre  et  le  commencement  de 
notre  siecle.  Young  eut  moins  de  gout  que  ces 
ecrivains,  mais  on  diroit  qu'il  dedaigna  d'en 
avoir.  Ennemi  jusqu'a  I'exces  de  tout  ce  qui 
sentoit  I'imitation,  il  abandonna  son  imagination 
a  elle-meme.  Ne  pour  etre  original,  il  a  voulu 
I'etre,  et  remplir  une  tache  qui  lui  fut  propre. 
Quittant  les  routes  ordinaires,  c'est  au  milieu 
des  tombeaux  qu'il  est  alle  batir  le  monument 
de  son  immortalite.  C'etoit  le  placer  dans  des 
lieux  ou  il  avoit  le  moins  a  craindre  de  se  voir 
suivi  par  des  rivaux.  Mais  quand  le  meme 
gout    et    la    meme    douleur    y   entraineroient 


60  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

d'autres,  ils  verroient  bientot,  que  s'il  est  aise 
d'y  batir  avec  plus  de  regularite,  il  ne  Test  pas 
d'atteindre  a  la  meme  hauteur.  Le  poeme  des 
Nuits  ou  Complaintes,  presente  des  defauts 
nombreux  qu'il  est  presque  aussi  facile  d'eviter 
que  d'apercevoir;  mais  ce  n'en  est  pas  moins  la 
plus  sublime  elegie  qui  ait  jamais  ete  faite  sur  les 
miseres  de  la  condition  humaine,  et  le  plus  hardi 
monument  ou  les  grandes  beautes  de  la  poesie 
brillent  unies  aux  grandes  verites  de  la  morale 
et  de  la  religion.  II  est  impossible  de  lire  cet 
ouvrage,  unique  dans  son  genre,  sans  desirer  de 
connoitre  plus  particulierement  le  caractere  et 
les  principaux  details  de  la  vie  d'un  liomme  si 
singulier  pour  ceux  memes  que  leur  gout  porta 
a  la  retraite,  a  plus  forte  raison  pour  les  lecteurs 
ordinaires  et  ceux  qui  passent  leur  vie  sans 
reflechir." 

After  this  introduction,  which  in  spite  of  its 
grandiloquent  expressions  wins  the  interest  and 
indulgence  of  the  reader  by  its  tone  of  sincerity 
and  appreciation,  Le  Tourneur  proceeds  to  give 
a  fairly  correct  outline  of  Young's  life.  The 
material  for  this  biographical  sketch  was  drawn 
from  an  article  on  Young  in  the  Montlily  Review  ^ 
1  Monthly  Beview^  1767,  pp.  40-46. 


THE   ENGLISH   SCHOOL  OF  MELANCHOLY     51 

for  1767,  which  was  reprinted  from  one  in 
the  Biographia  Britanniea^  of  the  previous 
year.  This  account  of  the  life  of  Young  is 
very  characteristic  of  Le  Tourneur's  treatment 
of  material  which  he  found  ready  to  his  hand. 
Unlike  a  great  genius,  he  does  not  assimilate 
and  fuse  it  in  the  white  heat  of  his  own  inven- 
tion until  it  emerges  from  his  mind  again  in  a 
new  and  different  form.  Neither  does  he  trans- 
late carefully  and  accurately  with  that  scrupu- 
lous regard  for  the  text  which  is  one  of  the 
articles  of  faith  in  modern  scholarship.  He  does 
indeed  follow  closely  his  English  original  as  to 
general  plan  and  outline.  Sometimes  he  trans- 
lates almost  word  for  word,  many  times  he 
paraphrases  a  sentence  or  omits  a  phrase,  and 
continually  he  adds  little  touches  of  his  own, 
apparently  for  the  sake  of  embellishing  the  orig- 
inal.    A  single  example  will  make  this  clear  : 

"  Previous  to  his  decease,"  says  the  Monthly 
Review^  "he  ordered  all   his    Ms.    to   be    com- 

1  Biographia  Britannica,  1766,  Vol.  VI.  Part  II.  Ap- 
pendix. Le  Tourneur  probably  had  access  to  both  sources 
of  information,  for  he  gives  the  occasion  of  the  composition 
of  "The  Resignation,"  which  is  omitted  in  the  Monthly 
Beview.  He  may  have  seen  also  the  Gentleman'' s  Magazine 
for  1766,  which  contains  the  same  article  with  corrections. 


62  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

mitted  to  the  flames.  Those  who  knew  how 
much  he  expressed  in  a  small  compass,  and  that 
he  never  wrote  on  trivial  subjects,  will  perhaps 
lament  both  the  modesty  and  irreparable  loss  to 
posterity." 

From  Le  Tourneur  the  reader  may  be  sur- 
prised and  interested  to  learn  that: 

"  Ce  ne  fut  pas  pour  se  venger  de  I'oubli  des 
hommes,  mais  par  I'indifference  qu'un  mourant 
doit  sentir  pour  leur  estime,  qu' Young  fit  jeter 
au  feu  tous  ses  manuscrits  lorsqu'il  vit  sa  mort 
decidee." 

This  adorning  of  the  raw  material  was  evidently 
intended  to  make  Young  stand  forth  in  the  most 
favorable  light,  and  the  enthusiastic  Le  Tour- 
neur seems  to  believe  himself  gifted  with  the 
power  of  penetrating  the  inmost  recesses  of  his 
hero's  heart,  for  he  makes  absolute  statements 
like  the  above,  and  reveals  secret  motives  which 
he  could  have  had  no  means  of  knowing,  with  an 
assurance  and  implicit  faith  in  his  own  state- 
ments which  is  almost  convincing  from  its  very 
audacity.  This  method  of  procedure  is  char- 
acteristic, to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  of  all  Le 
Tourneur's  work  as  a  translator,  and  the  per- 
sonal equation  must  be  reckoned  as  a  very  im- 


THE  ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF  MELANCHOLY     63 

portant  factor  in  any  judgment  of  him.  E very- 
author  whose  works  he  undertakes  to  translate 
is  to  him  a  hero,  a  newly  discovered  friend  to 
admire  and  revere,  to  be  presented  with  all  pos- 
sible heralding  of  virtues  to  a  public  waiting 
eagerly  for  the  honor  of  an  introduction.  So, 
in  this  life  of  Edward  Young,  Le  Tourneur  is, 
throughout,  delightfully  and  refreshingly  en- 
thusiastic, and  the  gloomy,  discontented  Eng- 
lishman is  presented  in  the  guise  of  a  hero  and 
a  saint,  with  all  the  power  of  Le  Tourneur's 
bombastic  periods.  He  compares  him  to  Pascal, 
in  energy  and  depth,  and  declares  that  their 
ideas  are  of  the  same  order.^ 

All  this  enthusiasm,  however,  does  not  blind 
him  to  the  faults  of  the  Night  Thoughts^ 
which  he  discusses  at  length  both  in  regard  to 
their  beauties  and  their  defects.  They  were 
written,  he  says,  at  haphazard.  Young  noted 
down  his  thoughts  and  impressions  just  as  they 
came  to  him  without  troubling  himself  to  avoid 
repetition  or  to  bring  order  out  of  chaos.     Never- 

1  *'  Pascal  est  celui  de  nos  auteurs  dont  le  g^nie  me  paroit 
avoir  eu  le  plus  de  rapport  avec  celui  d' Young  pour  I'^nergie, 
la  profondeur,  les  id^es  du  m§me  ordre  et  le  m§me  tour 
d' imagination." 


64  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

theless,  this  poem  has  great  beauties,  and  here 
Le  Tourneur  becomes  lost  in  admiration  for  the 
space  of  several  paragraphs.  Suddenly,  how- 
ever, he  pulls  himself  up  short,  soliloquizing 
aloud  for  the  benefit  of  the  reader : 

"  Comme  je  n'ai  pas  acquis  le  droit  d'avoir 
pour  les  miens  (lecteurs)  cette  espece  d'insou- 
ciance,  il  est  tems  que  je  finisse  des  reflexions 
qu'ils  feront  tres  bien  sans  moi,  pour  les  prevenir 
sur  les  libert^s  que  j'ai  prises  sur  cette  traduc- 
tion. Ce  sont  les  defauts  que  j'ai  cru  remarquer 
dans  I'ouvrage  qui  m'y  ont  autoris^." 

The  first  of  these  defects  is  that  of  repetition, 
often  useless  and  wearisome.  All  such  pas- 
sages Le  Tourneur  omits  from  his  translation, 
together  with  all  irrelevant  matter  which  seems 
to  him  bizarre,  trivial,  or  poor,  and  lines  treating 
only  of  theology  and  the  doctrine  of  revelation; 
but  he  honorably  prints  them  in  the  form  of 
notes^  at  the  end  of  each  Nuit^  so  that  nothing 
shall  be  really  lost.  His  first  "  liberty,"  then, 
is  the  omission  of  certain  passages.  For  this  he 
has  an  excellent  excuse  : 

"  Mon  intention  a  ete  de  tirer  de  TYoung 
anglois,  un  Young  fran^ois,  qui  put  plaire  a  ma 
nation  et  qu'on  put  lire  avec  interet  sans  songer 


THE   ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF   MELANCHOLY     55 

s'il  est  original  ou  copie.  II  me  semble  que 
c'est  la  methode  qu'on  devroit  suivre  en  tradui- 
sant  les  auteurs  des  langues  etrangeres,  qui, 
avec  un  merite  superieur,  ne  sont  pas  des  mo- 
deles  de  gout.  Par  la,  tout  ce  qu'il  y  a  de  bon 
chez  nos  voisins  nous  deviendroit  propre,  et 
nous  laisserions  le  mauvais  que  nous  n'avons 
aucun  besoin  de  lire  ni  de  connoitre.  Ce  n'est 
cependant  point  I'extrait  ni  Vesprit  d'Young, 
mais  la  traduction  entiere  des  Nuits  que  je 
donne  ici." 

The  reader  who  may  begin  to  wonder  at  this 
point  what  Le  Tourneur's  idea  of  a  complete 
translation  is,  has  only  to  listen  patiently  and, 
if  he  be  a  modern  scholar,  with  as  much  tol- 
erance as  in  him  lies.  The  second  defect  is  lack 
of  order.  This  is  a  fault  so  serious  that  Le 
Tourneur  cannot  hope  to  remedy  it  entirely; 
he  will  at  least  do  his  best  to  diminish  it. 
Young,  he  complains,  did  not  make  of  each 
Wight  a  unit.  One  subject  is  not  consistently 
developed  in  each  division  of  the  poem,  but 
is  often  touched  upon  in  one  place,  taken  up 
again  in  another,  and  sometimes  distributed 
over  the  whole  nine  Nights,  Such  dissipation 
of  ideas,   although  very  natural   to  one  writ- 


66  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

ing  in  an  ecstacy  of  grief,  is  abhorrent  to  the 
logical  and  order-loving  mind  of  the  French 
translator.  It  is  fatal  to  the  interest  of  the 
work,  where  attention  is  apt  to  flag  because  of 
the  very  seriousness  of  the  subject.  Further- 
more, it  destroys  in  each  Night  the  charm  of 
variety,  the  first  source  of  which  lies  in  the 
novelty  of  the  subjects  presented.  In  short, 
such  disorder  in  the  arrangement  of  ideas  is  a 
piece  of  carelessness  on  the  part  of  the  English 
poet,  which  he  would  undoubtedly  have  remedied 
if  he  had  had  the  requisite  calm  and  leisure. 
Le  Tourneur,  who  generously  judges  him,  not 
upon  what  he  did,  but  upon  what  he  might  have 
done,  will  make  the  correction  for  him.  His 
first  liberty  with  his  text  is  omission,  his  second 
is  rearrangement. 

"  J'ai  done  regarde  cette  premiere  traduction," 
he  says,  "  comme  un  architecte  feroit  Tamas  des 
materiaux  d'un  edifice,  tallies  et  tout  prets  a 
placer,  mais  entasses,  au  hasard  dans  huit  ou 
neuf  places  differentes  et  meles  dans  les  d4- 
combres.  J'ai  assemble,  assorti  de  mon  mieux, 
sous  un  titre  commun,  tons  les  fragmens  qui 
pourroient  s'y  rapporter  et  former  une  espece 
d'ensemble.     La  meme  raison  m'a  fait  multiplier 


THE  ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF  MELANCHOLY     57 

ces  titres,  et  des  neuf  Nuits  de  roriginal,  j'en 
ai  forme  vingt-quatre." 

The  nine  Night  Thoughts  of  Edward  Young 
transformed  into  twenty-four  Nuits!  Such  a 
"  bouleversement "  of  the  original  text  might 
well  fill  even  the  audacious  Le  Tourneur  with 
dismay.  But  he  has  only  one  fear,  that  of  pos- 
sibly having  interfered  with  the  "  sublime  dis- 
order of  grief  and  genius."  He  is  reassured, 
however,  by  the  firm  conviction  that  he  has 
done  well.^ 

The  astonished  reader,  who  may  well  be  ask- 
ing what  sort  of  a  translation  is  to  be  expected 
from  one  who  takes  such  unprecedented  liberties 
with  his  author,  may  also  be  reassured.  Le 
Tourneur  is  nothing  if  not  conscientious,  and  he 
will  explain  his  method  with  the  greatest  care. 

"  Au  reste,  j'ai  tache  de  traduire  aussi  literale- 
ment  que  j'ai  pu,  a  raison  de  mon  talent  et  de 
la  difference  du  genie  des  deux  langues."  So 
far,  so  good,  and  the  critic  breathes  a  sigh  of 
relief.     But  there  is  more  to  follow.     "  Quand 

1  "  Je  me  flatte  de  n'avoir  pas  profan6  ces  ^lans  de 
I'enthousiasme,  ces  mouvements  de  I'^me,  cette  succession 
rapide  et  tumultueuse  des  transports  d'une  S,me  agit^e 
qui  s'^lance  et  bondit  d'id^es  en  id^es,  de  sentimens  en 
sentimens." 


68  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

il  m'est  venu  quelque  idee  qui  pourroit  servir 

de  liaison  aux  autres,  quelque  epithete  qui  com- 

pletoit  une  image,  la  rendoit  plus  lumineuse,  ou 

donnoit  plus  d'harmonie  au  style,  j'ai  cru  que 

c'etoit  mon  droit  de  I'employer.     S'il  etoit  vrai 

que   j'eusse   quelquefois   embelli   I'original,   ce 

seroit  une  bonne  fortune  dont  je  lui  rends  tout 

I'honneur.      Je   ne  la  devrois  qu'au  sentiment 

dont  il  me  penetroit.     Quand  notre  langue  re- 

sistoit  a  I'expression  angloise,  j'ai  traduit  I'idee ; 

et  quand  I'idee  conservoit  encore   un  air  trop 

etranger  aux  notres,  j'ai  traduit  le   sentiment. 

Pour  me  faire  mieux  entendre,  j'en  citerai  un 

exemple.     A  la  fin  des  notes  de  la  quatrieme 

Nuit,  on  lit:     'Le  souvenir  de  la  mort  de  Nar- 

cisse  fait  rebrousser  les  pensees  les  plus  joyeuses 

de  I'age  le  plus  gai  droit  a  la  vallee  des  morts.'  ^ 

Voila    le    mot  a   mot    de   I'anglois.     Laissant 

cette  idee  trop  sauvage  pour  nous,  j'y  ai  sub- 

stitue  I'idee  qu'elle  faisoit  naitre.     'Le  jeune 

homme,  dans  la  fougue  de  ITige  et  des  plaisirs, 

suspendra  sa  joie  pour  s'attendrir  sur  ton  sort ; 

il  ira  m^lancolique  et  pensif  rever  a  toi  au  milieu 

des  tombeaux.' " 

1  "  And  turn  the  gayest  thought  of  gayest  age 

Down  their  right  channel,  through  the  vale  of  death." 

UI.  263-264. 


THE  ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF  MELANCHOLY     59 

From  all  this  it  will  be  readily  seen  that  no 
complete  and  accurate  translation  of  the  Night 
Thoughts  of  Edward  Young  is  to  be  expected. 
Le  Tourneur's  work,  indeed,  can  hardly  be  called 
a  translation  at  all,  in  the  modern  acceptation  of 
the  word.  It  is,  rather,  a  very  skilful  and  in- 
genious arrangement  and  adaptation,  an  inter- 
pretation rather  than  a  translation.  It  has 
seemed  worth  while  to  dwell  thus  at  length 
and  in  detail  upon  this  Introduction,  for  it  not 
only  reveals  clearly  and  exactly  Le  Tourneur's 
individual  methods  of  literary  work,  but  also 
expresses  the  general  eighteenth-century  ideal 
of  what  a  scholarly  translation  should  be.^  It 
is  clear,  too,  that  the  Nuits  d"  Young  cannot  be 
judged  by  the  standard  of  an  ordinary  modern 
translation,  but  must  be  considered  as  a  genre 
quite  apart,  and  a  different  criterion  of  criticism 
should  accordingly  be  applied  to  it. 

To  the  student  of  the  Nuits^  who  strives  to 
discover  from  which  of  Young's  Nights  Le  Tour- 
neur  gathered  the  material  for  any  one  of  his 
Nuits,  it  seems  that  the  labor  of  the  self-styled 

1  Cf.  D'Alembert,  Melanges  de  Litterature,  d'^Histoire  et 
de  Philosophies  Amsterdam,  1769,  Vol.  III.  Observations 
sur  I'art  de  traduire  en  gdn^ral,  etc. 


60  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

translator  must  have  been  endless.  In  the 
whole  twenty-four,  only  one  title  is  identical 
with  one  of  Young's  nine,  Narcisse^^  and  the 
immense  task  of  going  through  the  English 
poem  and  picking  out  here  and  there,  lines  on 
friendship,  on  immortality,  etc.,  to  form  separate 
essays,  which  are  then  to  be  welded  into  one 
harmonious  and  connected  whole,  makes  the 
reader  fairly  gasp  with  amazement  at  the  in- 
finite patience  and  time  required  for  such  a 
labor.  The  work  is,  besides,  more  than  a  mere 
editing  of  selections  chosen  for  their  continuity 
or   appropriateness.      Interwoven   in   the   very 

1  Young's  nine  Nights  are  as  follows  :  (1)  On  Life,  Death, 
and  Immortality.  (2)  On  Time,  Death,  and  Friendship. 
(3)  Narcissa.  (4)  The  Christian  Triumph.  (5)  (6)  and 
(7)  The  Infidel  Reclaimed.  (8)  Virtue's  Apology.  (9)  The 
Consolation. 

Le  Tourneur's  subjects  include:  (1)  Mis^res  de  1' Hu- 
manity. (2)  L'Amiti^.  (3)  Le  Temps.  (4)  Narcisse. 
(6)  Le  Remade  contre  la  Crainte  de  la  Mort.  (6)  L'Oubli 
de  la  Mort.  (7)  Le  Caract^re  de  la  Mort.  (8)  (9) 
(10)  L' Immortality.  (11)  L'An^antissement.  (12)  Les 
Avantages  de  la  Nuit  et  de  la  Solitude.  (13)  La  Tristesse 
et  le  Malheur.  (14)  Grandeur  de  I'Ame.  (16)  Le  Monde. 
(10)  Le  Plaisir  et  le  Suicide.  (17)  Le  Bel  Esprit.  (18)  La 
Conscience.  (19)  La  Vertu.  (20)  L'Existence  de  Dieu  et 
des  Esprits.  (21)  Plurality  des  Mondes.  (22)  Vue  morale 
des  Cieux.    (23)  Hymne  k  I'ljternel.     (24)  La  Consolation, 


THE  ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF  MELANCHOLY     61 

warp  and  woof  of  the  whole  fabric  are  Le 
Tourneur's  own  thoughts  and  ideas,  so  inex- 
tricably tangled  in  the  meshes  of  Young's  sen- 
timents as  to  be  often  almost  indistinguishable 
from  them.  He  seems  to  have  been  so  familiar 
with  the  English  author,  so  imbued  with  his 
thought  and  so  filled  with  his  spirit,  that  he 
caught  the  very  essence  of  his  inspiration  and 
spoke  his  language  as  easily  as  his  own.  He 
gives  often  not  even  a  paraphrase,  but  an  echo, 
a  thought  of  his  own  suggested  by  Young.  It 
is,  indeed,  no  longer  Edward  Young  the  Eng- 
lish poet,  whom  Le  Tourneur  presents,  but  a 
"  Young  fran^ais "  who  did,  as  his  translator 
hoped,  find  a  place  for  himself  in  the  litera- 
ture of  Prance. 

Considered,  then,  as  an  interpreter,  an  imi- 
tator, a  critical  editor  of  Young,  and  recogniz- 
ing what  he  aimed  to  do  —  to  omit  irrelevant 
and  uninteresting  passages,  to  avoid  repetition, 
to  make  an  orderly  arrangement  in  twenty- 
four  divisions  of  the  thoughts  scattered  through- 
out Young's  nine  Nights^  to  translate  literally 
wherever  possible,  to  embellish  or  paraphrase 
the  original  at  will,  —  in  short,  to  introduce 
a  French   Young,   acceptable    to   the   waiting 


62  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

public,  —  in  view  of  all  this,  it  must  be  granted 
that  Le  Tourneur  did  his  work  faithfully  and 
well. 

The  work,  on  the  whole,  shows  a  good  deal 
of  originality,  skill,  and  literary  discrimina- 
tion. The  general  effect  is  good,  the  arrange- 
ment clear,  the  development  logical,  and  the 
style  agreeable  ;  and  many  a  modern  reader 
will  readily  understand  why  the  French  in 
general  found  the  Young  Frangais  superior  to 
the  original.  Young's  fine  lines  and  passages 
of  really  good  poetry  are,  of  course,  lost  in  Le 
Tourneur's  rendering,  but  so  are  the  dreary 
stretches  of  rhetoric  and  the  arid  wastes  of 
repetition.  On  the  other  hand,  something  is 
gained  by  the  logical  development  of  Le  Tour- 
neur's arrangement,  and  the  charm  of  a  clear 
and  quaintly  grandiloquent  prose.  One  or  two 
examples  will  enable  the  reader  to  judge  for 
himself.  Take  first  the  famous  description  of 
Night: 

"  Night  I  sable  goddess !  from  her  ebon  throne, 
In  rayless  majesty  now  stretches  forth 
Her  leaden  sceptre  o'er  a  slumb'ring  world. 
Silence,  how  dead  !  and  darkness,  how  profound  ! 
Nor  eye  nor  listening  ear  an  object  finds. 
Creation  sleeps  1    'Tis  as  the  general  pulse 


THE  ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF  MELANCHOLY     63 

Of  life  stood  still,  and  Nature  made  a  pause ; 
An  awful  pause  !  prophetic  of  her  end. 
And  let  her  prophecy  be  soon  fulfiU'd  ; 
Fate  !  drop  the  curtain  :  I  can  lose  no  more."  ^ 

"  Maintenant  arrivee  au  milieu  de  son  cercle, 
assise  au  haut  des  airs  sur  son  tr6ne  d'eb^ne,  la 
nuit,  comme  un  Dieu  dans  une  majeste  voilee 
et  sans  rayons,  etend  son  sceptre  de  plomb  sur 
un  monde  assoupi.  Quel  silence  absolu  !  quelle 
obscurite  prof onde  I  L'oeil  ne  voit  aucun  objet, 
I'oreille  n'entend  aucun  son.  Toute  la  creation 
dort,  tout  paroit  mort.  II  semble  que  le  mouve- 
ment  qui  donne  la  vie  a  I'univers  se  soit  arrete 
et  que  la  nature  fasse  une  pause.  Repos  terrible, 
image  prophetique  de  la  fin  du  monde  !  Qu'elle 
ne  tarde  plus !  Destin,  hate-toi  de  tirer  le 
rideau;  je  ne  peux  plus  perdre." 

Compare  with  this  the  still  more  celebrated 
apostrophe  to  Death : 

"Death !  great  proprietor  of  all !  'tis  thine 
To  tread  out  empire,  and  to  quench  the  stars. 
The  sun  himself  by  thy  permission  shines  ; 
And  one  day  thou  shalt  pluck  him  from  his  sphere. 
Amid  such  mighty  plunder,  why  exhaust 
Thy  partial  quiver  on  a  mark  so  mean  ? 
Why  thy  peculiar  rancour  wreak'd  on  me?"^ 

1  Works  of  Edward  Young,  London,  1765.      Night  I. 

2  Night  I. 


64  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

"  O  Mort !  souverain  proprietaire  de  tous  les 
etres,  il  t'appartient  d'effacer  les  empires  sous 
tes  pas  et  d'eteindre  les  astres.  Le  soleil  lui- 
meme,  tu  ne  dois  le  souffrir  qu'un  tems,  dans 
Tunivers;  un  jour  viendra  que  ton  bras  le 
detronant  de  sa  sphere,  le  precipitera  dans  la 
nuit.  Ne  peux-tu  done  te  contenter  de  ces 
grandes  victimes  ?  Pourquoi  ta  haine  s'attache- 
t-elle  a  un  atome  et  me  choisit-elle  pour  s'epuiser 
sur  moi  ?  " 

These  two  examples  represent  very  fairly  the 
kind  of  work  Le  Tourneur  did  as  a  translator. 
Some  of  the  lines  are  quite  carefully  and  literally 
rendered,  so  that  it  seems  as  if  he  could  be  exact 
enough  when  he  chose.  Fortunately  or  unfor- 
tunately, he  never  chose  for  any  length  of  time. 
Even  when  he  pretended  to  be  most  exact,  he 
seemed  unable  to  resist  the  temptation  to  em- 
broider his  original,  to  add  an  epithet,  to  trans- 
late a  word  by  a  phrase,  to  expand  or  to  condense. 
Nevertheless,  this  method  of  dealing  with  a  text 
was  highly  approved,  not  only  in  France,  but  in 
England ;  ^  and  Le  Tourneur,  no  less  than  his 

1  "  Such  of  our  readers  as  are  well  acquainted  with  the 
genius  of  the  French  language  must  be  very  sensible  of  the 
difficulty  of  M.  Le  Tourneur's  undertaking,  which  he  has 
executed,  however,  with  great  ability.    He  appears  to  be  a 


THE  ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF  MELANCHOLY     65 

Young  Frangais^  was  received  with  the  greatest 
enthusiasm 

In  addition  to  the  Night  Thoughts  these  two 
volumes  contained  the  Epitre  d  Voltaire^  The 
Last  Judgment^  the  Paraphrase  of  Part  of  the 
Booh  ofJoh^  a  Revue  de  la  Vie^  Pensees  sur  Divers 
Sujets^  JEusebe,  and  an  extract  from  The  Resig- 
nation, all  of  the  latter  poem,  in  fact,  which  was 
not  "entirely  unworthy  of  being  translated." 
Here  the  same  method  of  analysis  and  synthe- 
sis in  composition  is  employed.  The  Epitre  a 
Voltaire  is  merely  a  paraphrase  of  eight  of  the 
nine  verses  composing  the  Dedication  to  M,  Vol- 
taire, which  preceded  the  Sea  Piece  of  1733. 
The  reader  of  this  mediocre  selection  will  be  re- 
paid by  one  amusing  mistake  of  the  translator, 
who  innocently  renders  Dorset  downs  by  le 
duvet  de  Dorset ! 

man  of  genius,  sound  judgment,  and  good  taste ;  there  is 
something,  too,  in  his  turn  of  thought  and  in  the  boldness 
and  energy  of  his  style  that  renders  him  peculiarly  qualified 
for  such  a  task  as  that  of  translating  Dr.  Young. 

"What  gives  frequent  disgust  to  every  reader  of  taste,  in 
the  Night  Thoughts^  is  the  turning  and  twisting  of  the 
same  sentiment  into  a  thousand  different  shapes.  The 
translator,  very  judiciously,  has  taken  great  liberty  with  his 
author  in  this  respect."  — Monthly  Beview,  1769,  Vol.  XLI. 
p.  562. 


ee  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

The  fifth  letter  in  The  Centaur  not  Fabulous 
furnishes  the  material  for  the  Revue  de  la  Vie 
and  PensSes  sur  Divers  Sujets,  while  Uusebe,  ou 
le  Riche  Vertueux  was  composed  from  the  third 
letter. 

The  translation  of  the  Last  Judgment  is  a 
more  faithful  rendering  of  the  text  than  that 
of  the  Night  Thoughts.  Le  Tourneur  contents 
himself  with  suppressing  a  few  sentences  here 
and  there,  and  omitting  entirely  the  long  para- 
graph which  concludes  the  third  book,  and 
which  seems  to  him  an  anti-climax  after  the 
preceding  picture  of  universal  conflagration. 
The  same  feeling  of  dramatic  fitness  probably 
prompted  him  to  transfer  Job's  short  and  humble 
interruptions  of  the  Lord's  questions,  to  the  end 
of  the  Paraphrase.  Otherwise  the  English  is 
followed  quite  closely,  though  Young's  fine 
bravado,  especially  in  the  famous  description 
of  the  war-horse,  is  quite  attenuated  in  Le  Tour- 
neur's  elegant  and  stately  prose. ^ 

1  "  Survey  the  warlike  horse  :  didst  thou  invest 
With  thunder  his  robust  distended  chest  ? 
No  sense  of  fear  his  dauntless  soul  allays  : 
'Tis  dreadful  to  behold  his  nostrils  blaze  : 
To  paw  the  vale  he  proudly  takes  delight 
And  triumphs  in  the  fulness  of  his  might. 


THE  ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF  MELANCHOLY     67 

Encouraged   by  the  phenomenal   success    of 
the  Nuits,  Le  Tourneur  hastened  to  continue  the 
work,  and  in  1770  published  the    (Euvres  Di- 
verses  ^  in  two  volumes.    They  contained :  Estima- 
tion de  la  Vie,  Traite  des  Passions,  Lettres  Morales 
sur  le  Plaisir,  and  Conjectures  sur  la  Composition 
Originale,  together  with  the  Epitre  a  Lord  Lans- 
downe   and   the   tragedies   of   Busiris   and    La 
Vengeanee.     The  long  and  interesting  Preface 
contained  a  defense  of  the  poetry  of  the  school  of 
melancholy  and  a  promise  on  Le  Tourneur's  part 
soon  to  abandon  "  cemeteries  and  their  mournful 
yew  trees  "^and  to  choose  works  of  a  more  cheer- 
High  raised,  he  snuffs  the  battle  from  afar, 
And  burns  to  plunge  amid  the  raging  war  : 
And  mocks  at  death,  and  throws  his  foam  around 
And  in  a  storm  of  fury  shakes  the  ground." 
—  Paraphrase  of  Part  of  the  Book  of  Job,  259-269. 

*'  Vois  le  cheval  guerrier.  As-tu  tendu  ses  muscles,  ses 
fiancs  robustes  ?  Son  §,me  indomptable  ne  connoit  point  la 
crainte.  Vois  le  feu  jaillir  de  ses  narines  fumantes ;  il  se 
plait  k  f rapper  la  terre  de  son  pied  superbe,  et  se  r^jouit  de 
sa  force.  La  tSte  lev^e,  il  appelle  par  ses  hennissements  les 
combats  ^loign^s,  et  brdle  de  se  pr^cipiter  au  milieu  du 
carnage.  II  se  rit  du  tr^pas,  couvre  son  mors  d'^cume,  et 
dans  les  transports  furieux,  il  enfonce  la  terre." 

1  (Euvres  Diverses  du  Docteur  Young^  traduites  de 
I'Anglois  par  M.  Le  Tourneur.  Paris,  1770,  2  vols,  in  8vo 
(priv.  26  juillet). 


68  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

ful  character,  unless,  he  adds  naively,  "  chance 
should  ofifer  me  some  one  very  sublime  and  very 
melancholy  who  might  make  the  breaking  of  my 
promise  pardonable."  At  this  point  he  takes 
advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  mention  his 
proposed  translation  of  Shakespeare  which  he  is 
ready  to  undertake  if  he  can  be  assured  of  its 
favorable  reception  by  the  public. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  here  that  the  idea  of 
a  scrupulously  exact  and  accurate  translation 
was  growing  upon  Le  Tourneur  as  a  desirable 
possibility,  though  he  never,  in  his  most  careful 
moments,  succeeded  in  living  up  to  it.  He  is 
aware,  for  example,  that  the  omission  of  seven 
or  eight  pages  from  the  Conjectures  sur  la 
Composition  Originale  would  be  a  decided 
improvement.  Nevertheless,  he  proposes  to 
translate  the  entire  essay,  both  because  he  has 
a  sort  of  respect  for  the  last  work  of  an  old 
man,  and  because,  by  seeing  all  its  beauties 
and  defects,  the  reader  will  be  better  enabled 
to  appreciate  Young's  remarkable  imagina- 
tion. In  the  case  of  the  tragedies,  too,  he 
intends   to   be  strictly  literal,^   and  this  is  his 

1  "On  a  la  traduction  litt^rale  de  ses  deux  pieces.  J'ai 
t&ch^  de  repr^enter  partout  dans  notre  langue  la  m^me  id^ 


THE  ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF  MELANCHOLY     69 

excuse  for  repeating  part  of  the   work  of  La 
Place.i 

On  the  whole,  Le  Tourneur  fulfilled  his  prom- 
ise to  be  literal  with  considerable  fidelity,  per- 
haps with  as   much  as  lay  within  his   power. 2 

le  m§ine  sentiment,  la  mgme  image,  le  m§me  tour,  le  meme 
arrangement  et  toutes  ces  nuances  qu'on  n'alt^re  point  sans 
alt^rer  le  tout.  .  .  .  On  perd  dans  ma  prose  quantity  de 
beaux  vers  r^pandus  dans  les  Scenes  que  M.  de  la  Place 
avoit  orn^es  de  rimes.  Mais  on  y  voit  mieux  I'original,  on 
y  entend  les  personnages,  leurs  vrais  sentimens,  de  quelle 
mani^re  et  dans  quel  ordre  ils  les  ont  exprim^s." 
1  Le  Theatre  Anglois,  Paris,  1745. 

2  "  This  vast  and  solid  earth,  that  blazing  sun. 

Those  skies  through  which  it  rolls,  must  all  have  end. 

What  then,  is  man  ?  the  smallest  part  of  nothing. 

Day  buries  day ;  month,  month  ;  and  year,  the  year. 

Our  life  is  but  a  chain  of  many  deaths. 

Can  then.  Death's  self  be  feared  ?    Our  life  much  rather. 

Life  is  the  desert,  life  the  solitude ; 

Death  joins  us  to  the  great  majority ; 

'Tis  to  be  born  to  Platos  and  to  Caesar, 

'Tis  to  be  great  for  ever ; 

'Tis  pleasure,  'tis  ambition  then,  to  die." 

—  The  Bevenge^  Act  IV.  Scene  4. 

"  Cette  terre  si  vaste  et  si  solide,  ce  Soleil  6clatant,  ce 
firmament  au  travers  duquel  il  roule,  tous  ces  grands  8tres 
doivent  finir.  Qu'est-ce  done  que  I'homme  ?  La  plus  frele 
parcelle  du  n^ant.  Un  jour  succ6de  k  1' autre,  le  mois 
remplace  le  mois,  I'ann^e  engloutit  Pann^e  ;  notre  vie  n'est 
qu'une  chaine  continue  de  mille  morts.  Qu'a  done  la  mort 
en  elle-mgme  de  redoutable  ?    C'est  la  vie  qui  est  bien  plus  ^ 


70  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

The  only  important  changes  he  made  in  the 
text  were  conscientiously  noted  in  the  Preface. 
He  shortened  Young's  long  True  Estimation 
of  Human  Life  by  making  a  separate  division 
of  the  description  of  the  passions  under  the 
title  Traits  des  Passions,  to  which  he  adds, 
as  introduction,  the  preface  to  the  whole  essay. 
The  Lettres  Morales  consist  of  those  portions 
of  the  first  four  letters  of  77ie  Centaur  not 
Fabulous,  not  already  used  in  the  manufacture 
of  Eusehe  and  dovetailed  skilfully  together. 
With  the  exception  of  these  changes,  his  prose 
rendering  is  generally  accurate  as  to  sense,  if  it 
does  not  always  follow  the  word.  The  trans- 
lator simply  reserves  to  himself  the  inalienable 
right  to  omit  a  word  here,  soften  a  phrase  there, 
add  an  occasional  adjective  or  adverb. 
f"  Edward  Young  and  his  interpreter,  Pierre 
Le  Tourneur,  were  received  in  France  with  the 
greatest  enthusiasm.  By  September,  1769,  the 
third  edition  ^  of  their  work  appeared,  and  there 

craindre.  C'est  la  vie,  c'est  ce  monde  qui  est  un  dfeert, 
une  vraie  solitude,  la  raort  nous  r^unit  k  la  foule  nombreuse 
du  genre  humain.  Mourir,  c'est  renattre  au  milieu  des 
Platons  et  des  C6sars  :  c'est  ^pouser  une  grandeur  ^ternelle, 
mourir  est  done  un  plaisir,  une  gloire  digne  de  notre 
ambition." 

1  Mercure  de  France^  September,  1769. 


THE  ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF  MELANCHOLY     71 

were  fifteen  within  the  next  six  years.  They 
took  Paris  by  storm  and  captivated  almost  the 
entire  reading  public. 

"  Monsieur  Le  Tourneur  marche  toujours  a 
c6te  de  son  modele  lorsqu'il  s'eleve,"  says  Freron, 
in  the  Annee  LittSraire,  "  le  corrige  lorsqu'il 
s'etend  dans  des  lieux  communs  ou  des  repeti- 
tions, substitue  des  idees  et  des  images  a  celles 
qui  ne  peuvent  etre  traduites  ou  qui  n'auroient 
aucune  gr^ce  dans  notre  langue."  ^ 

La  Harpe,  in  a  letter  to  M.  de  la  Borde,  pub- 
lished in  the  Mercure,  did  not  consider  Young  a 
great  poet,  but  had  only  praise  for  his  inter- 
preter. 

"  Quoiqu'il  en  soit.  Monsieur,  je  suis  charme 
que  cet  ouvrage  ait  commence  la  reputation  que 
M.  Le  Tourneur  paroit  devoir  acquerir  un  jour. 
II  admire  beaucoup  Young,  mais  je  suis  persuade 
qu'il  fera  mieux  que  lui.  Corneille  admiroit 
Lucain,  et  il  I'a  bien  surpasse.  ...  II  conserve 
toujours  la  couleur  de  son  original,  meme  en 
changeant  quelquefois  son  dessein  .  .  .  quand 
il  prend  la  place  d' Young,  il  est  au  moins  son 
egal."  2 

1  Annee  Litteraire,  November,  1769. 

2  Mercure  de  France,  September,  1769. 


72  PIERRE   LE  TOURNEUR 

Voltaire,  who,  less  than  ten  years  later,  was  to 
wage  relentless  war  upon  Le  Tourneur,  wrote 
him  cordially  from  Ferney,  June  7,  1769  :  "  II 
me  semble  que  le  Traducteur  a  plus  de  gout  que 
I'auteur.  Vous  avez  mis  autant  d'ordre  que 
vous  avez  pu  dans  ce  ramas  de  lieux  communs, 
ampoules  et  obscurs." 

Grimm,  one  of  the  few  to  protest  against  the 
gloom  of  the  English  poet,  was  roundly  taken 
to  task  by  Diderot : 

"  Monsieur  le  maitre  de  la  boutique  du  Houx 
to u jours  vert,  vous  retractez-vous  quelquefois  ? 
Eh  bien!  en  voici  une  belle  occasion.  Dites, 
s'il  vous  plait,  a  toutes  vos  augustes  pratiques, 
que  c'est  tres  mal  a  propos  que  vous  avez  attri- 
bue  I'incognito  a  la  traduction  des  Nuits  d'Young 
par  M.  Le  Tourneur.  Dites,  sur  ma  parole, 
que  cette  traduction,  pleine  d'harmonie  et  de 
la  plus  grande  richesse  d'expression,  une  des 
plus  difficiles  a  faire  en  toute  langae,  est 
une  des  mieux  faites  dans  la  n6tre.  L'edition 
en  a  etc  epuisee  en  quatre  mois,  et  Ton  tra- 
vaille  a  la  seconde ;  dites  encore  cela,  car 
cela  est  vrai.  Ajoutez  qu'elle  a  6te  lue  par 
nos  petits-maitres  et  nos  petites-maitresses,  et 
que   ce   n'est   pas  sans   un  merite   rare   qu'on 


THE  ENGLISH   SCHOOL   OF   MELANCHOLY     73 

fait  lire  des  jeremiades  a  un  peuple  frivole  et 
gai."  1 

A  complete  change  seemed  to  have  taken  place 
in  literary  taste.  The  Young  Frangais  became 
the  fashion  of  the  hour.  Editions  of  Le  Tour- 
neur  multiplied  with  astonishing  rapidity,  and 
his  translation  was  reprinted  as  late  as  1842.2 
Imitators  and  other  translators  followed  quickly 
in  Le  Tourneur's  footsteps ;  Les  Nuits  Pari- 
siennes,  Les  Nuits  Angloises^  and  finally  a  parody, 
Les  Jours^^  testified  to  the  widespread  popularity 
of  the  work.  Still  it  was  Le  Tourneur  and  his 
method  of  interpretation  that  received  the  lion's 
share  of  praise;*  his  work  remained  the  standard 

1  Correspondance  litteraire,  philosophique  et  critique,  par 
Grimm,  Diderot,  etc.,  ed.  Tourneux,  Paris,  1879,  Vol.  IX. 
p.  46. 

2  Christian,  Paris,  1842.  Les  Units  d'  Young,  suivies  des 
Tombeaux  d'Hervey.  Traduction  de  P.  Le  Tourneur,  revue, 
et  pr^c^d^e  d'un  Essai  sur  le  Jobisme. 

^  Les  Jours,  pour  servir  de  correctif  et  de  supplement  aux 
Nuits  d''  Young,  par  un  Mousquetaire  Noir,  Paris,  1770. 

^  "  Les  Nuits  de  M.  Le  Tourneur  ont  sans  doute  le  m^rite 
incontestable  d'etre  bien  dcrites  et  de  surpasser  m§me  quel- 
quefois  I'original.  S'il  ne  peut  plus  etre  regard^  comme  le 
traducteur  fiddle  de  cet  ouvrage,  un  titre  plus  distingu^  lui 
appartient."  —  Satyres  d'  Young,  ou,  V  Amour  de  la  Benom- 
mee,  passion  universelle.  Traductions  libres  de  I'Anglois, 
par  M.  Bertin,  Paris,  1767. 


74  PIERRE   LE   TOURNEUR 

translation  of  the  English  poet  and  the  medium 
through  which  he  was  known  to  France. 

It  is  easy  to  find  fault  with  Le  Tourneur's 
work  as  a  translation  and  to  criticize  it  with  ex- 
ceeding severity.  The  modern  scholar,  accus- 
tomed to  methods  of  accuracy,  exactness,  and  a 
scrupulous  fidelity  to  the  text,  is  tempted  to 
accuse  him  of  lack  of  initiative  and  literary 
frankness,  and  to  inquire  scornfully  why  he  did 
not  edit  such  portions  of  Young  as  might  have 
seemed  suitable,  instead  of  thus  refashioning 
him.  It  is  possible,  however,  that  Le  Tourneur 
was  neither  so  dull  nor  so  timid  as  he  may  ap- 
pear from  the  distant  viewpoint  of  the  twenti- 
eth century ;  it  is  possible,  moreover,  that,  living 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  he  was  better  able  to 
appreciate  its  needs  and  desires  than  we,  with 
all  the  accumulated  knowledge  of  more  than  a 
hundred  years ;  that  he  was  keen-sighted  enough 
to  realize  the  literary  situation,  and  bold  enough 
to  introduce  as  great  an  innovation  as  was  pos- 
sible to  a  nation  conservative  in  temperament, 

"Le  traducteur  ajouta,  re  Iran  ch  a,  embellit  Poeuvre  de 
son  auteur  et  grS-ce  h,  cette  trop  rare  infidel ite,  la  copie  de  ce 
lugubre  et  ^nergique  tableau  fut  pr^f^r^e  k  I'original."  — 
MontpellieVy  Tableau  historique  et  descriptifj  etc.,  par  E. 
Thomas,  Montpellier,  1853,  p.  164. 


THE   ENGLISH  SCHOOL   OF   MELANCHOLY     75 

taste,  and  training.  Whether  Young,  in  his 
own  original  form,  would  have  been  appreci- 
ated or  even  received  in  France,  must  ever  re- 
main an  open  question. 

But  however  Le  Tourneur's  interpretation  of 
Young  may  be  regarded  for  its  intrinsic  value,  it 
marks  an  important  point  in  the  history  of  liter- 
ature. To  Le  Tourneur  belongs  the  honor  of 
introducing  Young  to  France.  His  translation 
became  a  classic  of  the  poetry  of  melancholy, 
and  through  his  interpretation  the  English  poet 
exercised  a  considerable  influence  upon  French 
literature.  It  was  the  favorite  reading  of  Robes- 
pierre; Camille  Desmoulins  read  it  the  evening 
before  his  death,  thereby  bringing  upon  himself 
Westermann's  pleasantry,  "  Tu  veux  done  mou- 
rir  deux  fois  ?  "  ^  Mme.  de  Stael  knew  and  ap- 
preciated Young,  and  there  are  echoes  of  his 
philosophic  melancholy  in  Corinne  and  her  trag- 
edy, Jane  G-ray^  and  later,  Chateaubriand  showed 
the  same  influence  in  RenS  and  Atala,  But  with 
the  nineteenth  century  came  the  inevitable  re- 
action from  a  surfeit  of  melancholy,  and  with 
the  single  exception  of  Lamartine,  several  of 

^  J.  Texte,  J.- J.  Bousseau  et  les  Origines  du  Cosmo- 
politisme  Litteraire,  Paris,  1895,  p.  381. 


76  PIERKE  LE  TOURNEUE 

whose  MSditations  bear  witness  to  a  profound 
study  of  the  Night  Thoughts^  Young  was  less  and 
less  read,  until  he  became  merely  a  name.^ 

The  influence  of  Le  Tourneur's  Young  Frarv- 
gais  was  not  confined  to  France.  It  was  trans- 
lated into  Italian,  Spanish,  and  Portuguese.  In 
Italy,  the  Sepolchri  of  Ugo  Foscolo,  the  poetry 
of  Pindemonte  and  Leopardi  are  striking  exam- 
ples of  the  strength  and  persistence  of  Young's 
personality,  seen  through  translations  of  a  trans- 
lation. In  Germany,  meantime,  Young  had  be- 
come known  as  early  as  1751  by  the  admirable 
and  scholarly  translations  of  Ebert,  and  the  poet 
himself  had  created  as  great  a  sensation  as  in 
France,  but  without  the  necessary  mediation  of 
change  of  dress  and  speech.^ 

Young,  however,  was  not  the  only  poet  of 
melancholy  who  entered  France.  The  keen- 
sighted  Le  Tourneur,  seeing  that  a  delight 
in  sadness  was  rapidly  and  easily  acquired  by 
the  public,  hastened  to  gratify  this  new  taste, 
and  in  1770,  while  the  literary  world  was  still 

1  For  the  influence  of  Young  in  France  and  Italy,  see  Le 
Poete  Edward  Young^  par  W.  Thomas,  Paris,  1901 ;  also  J. 
Texte,  Bousseau  et  le  Cosmopolitisme  Litteraire,  Paris,  1896. 

2  For  Young  in  Germany  see  Thomas,  and  also  Edward 
Young  in  Oermany,  by  John  Kind,  New  York,  1906. 


THE   ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF  MELANCHOLY     77 

at  a  white  heat  of  enthusiasm  over  the  Night 
Thoughts^  brought  out  the  translation  of  an- 
other work  of  a  somewhat  similar  character, 
Hervey's  Meditations  on  the  Tombs}  This  was 
a  religious  work  in  two  volumes  (1747)  :  the 
first  containing  the  Meditations  and  Contempla- 
tions among  the  Tombs,  Reflections  on  a  Flower 
Garden,  and  A  Biseant  on  Creation;  the  second, 
Contemplations  on  the  Night,  Contemplations  on 
the  Starry  Heavens,  and  A  Winter  Piece. 
Hervey^  was  a  great  admirer  and  imitator  of 
Young,  and  his  writings  are  full  of  the  same 
melancholy  reflections  upon  death  and  the  life 
to  come,  but  his  grief  is  not  so  poignant  and 
his  sadness  is  more  gentle.  His  life,  like  his 
character,  was  simple,  unaffected,  unselfish; 
his  Meditations  are  artificial,  complex,  self- 
conscious  essays,  in  which  a  vast  number  of 
truisms  are  set  forth  in  stilted  phrases,  thickly 
interspersed  with  quotations  from  the  Bible 
and  from  Young's  Night  Thoughts.  If  Hervey 
had  been  content  to  wri'te  as  simply  as  he  talked 

1  Meditations  d^ Hervey,  traduites  de  I'Anglois,  par  M.  Le 
Tourneur,  Paris,  1770. 

2  James  Hervey  (1721-1775).  His  best-known  work  is 
Dialogues  between  Theron  and  Aspasia  (1755),  which  drew 
down  on  him  the  wrath  of  John  Wesley. 


78  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

and  lived,  many  of  his  descriptions  would  be 
pleasant  reading  ;  but  he  had,  at  least,  the  merit 
of  a  sincere  love  for  nature,  which  was  suffi- 
ciently rare  in  the  artificial  eighteenth  century. 
Le  Tourneur,  who  in  gentleness  and  serious 
unaffectedness  of  character  was  akin  to  Hervey, 
gives  a  detailed  and  sympathetic  account  of  the 
life  of  the  English  curate  in  the  preface  to  the 
Meditations^  the  materials  for  which  he  drew 
largely  from  Hervey's  Letters.  He  is  so  im- 
pressed with  the  beauty  and  simplicity  of  Her- 
vey's life  that  he  wishes  it  to  become  known 
to  the  curates  of  his  own  country  as  an  ex- 
ample worthy  of  imitation.  It  is  for  them 
especially  that  he  has  made  this  translation, 
and,  therefore,  for  their  edification  he  has 
retained  details  which  he  would  otherwise  have 
omitted.  Here  Le  Tourneur  pauses  to  make  a 
confession.  When  he  first  opened  the  Medita- 
tions^ he  says,  and  saw  that  they  had  already 
reached  the  fifteenth  edition,  he  believed  that 
he  had  found  a  masterpiece  of  literature  that 
would  prove  to  surpass  even  the  Night  TJwughts 
of  Young,  which,  at  the  time  of  his  translation, 
had  reached  only  the  fourth.  But  he  was 
doomed   to    disappointment.      "Je  reconnus," 


THE   ENGLISH   SCHOOL   OF   MELANCHOLY     79 

he  says  naively,  "que  le  grand  nonibre  des 
Editions  est  encore  une  regie  bien  incertaine 
pour  apprecier  le  merite  reel  d'un  Ouvrage,  et 
qu'il  est  mille  hasards  dans  la  reputation  et  les 
succes." 

Nevertheless,  after  the  first  shock  of  surprise 
at  finding  only  an  imitator  where  he  had  looked 
for  an  original  genius,  he  takes  fresh  courage. 
He  realizes  that  his  author  has,  after  all,  imagi- 
nation, feeling,  and  energy. ^ 

In  the  matter  of  translation,  Le  Tourneur 
pursues  much  the  same  method  as  in  his  inter- 
pretation of  Young.  He  greatly  abridges  the 
Meditations^  omitting  passages  directly  imitated 
from  the  Night  Thoughts^  and  those  of  a  purely 
devout  nature,  as  well  as  most  of  the  quota- 
tions and  paraphrases  of  the  Bible.  Why  re- 
print, he  asks,  a  number  of  commonplace 
statements  which  have  already  been  uttered 
in  a  more  pleasing  manner  by  Young?  As  for 
the  Bible  passages,  he  says  proudly,  "  Nous  pos- 
sedons  chez  nous  assez  de  livres  edifians  et 
pieux,  sans   avoir   besoin   d'en   emprunter   des 

1  "  Ses  Tombeaux  respirent  une  sensibility  douce  qui  vous 
p6n6tre  et  vous  attendrit  par  degr^s.  De  terns  en  terns  11 
lui  ^chappe  des  moments  et  des  traits  sublimes." 


80  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

Nations  Protestantes,  et  si  I'Ouvrage  n'efit  eu 
que  ce  m^rite,  il  n'eut  pas  rempli  mon  objet. 
...  II  faut  souvent  rendre  aux  Anglois  le  ser- 
vice de  chatier  leur  abondance :  les  pertes  les 
enrichissent  et  la  traduction  devient  souvent 
pour  leurs  Ouvrages  un  miroir  qui  recueille 
et  concentre  dans  un  foyer  brulant  mille  traits 
de  lumiere  qui,  auparavant  disperses  et  enve- 
loppes  de  nuages,  restoient  sans  chaleur  et  sans 
effet."  Thus  fortified  in  his  method  by  the 
above  excellent  reasons,  Le  Tourneur  is  about 
to  advance  to  the  translation,  but  pauses  again, 
unable  to  resist  a  final  remark  of  self -justifica- 
tion. He  fears  that,  perhaps,  after  all,  persons 
of  a  very  scrupulous  taste  may  think  that  he 
has  not  been  severe  enough  in  his  omissions. 
To  these,  if  there  be  any  such,  he  replies  gener- 
ously, "je  ne  devois  pas  non  plus  detruire  le 
plan  de  Toriginal  et  aneantir  en  entier  des  re- 
flexions qui  sont  le  but  principal  de  Tauteur,  et 
qui  dans  la  suite  de  ses  tableaux  peuvent  servir 
de  liaisons  ou  de  repos." 

The  Meditations  among  the  Tombs  are  said  to 
have  been  inspired  by  a  journey  made  by  Her- 
vey  to  Kilkhampton  from  Bideford,  while  he 
was  curate  there.     The  scene,  however,  is  laid 


THE   ENGLISH  SCHOOL   OF  MELANCHOLY     81 

in  Cornwall,  this  change  having  been  made,  says 
Hervey,  in  order  "  that  Imagination  might  oper- 
ate more  freely  and  the  Improvement  of  the 
Reader  be  consulted  without  anything  that 
should  look  like  a  variation  from  Truth  and 
Fact."i  Detained  for  some  hours  in  a  country 
village,  the  author  went  for  a  walk,  in  the  course 
of  which  he  passed  by  the  church.  "  The  doors, 
like  the  Heaven  to  which  they  lead,  were  wide 
open,  and  readily  admitted  an  unworthy  Stran- 
ger. Pleased  with  the  Opportunity,  I  resolved 
to  spend  a  few  minutes  under  the  sacred  Roof. 
In  a  situation  so  retired  and  awful,  I  could  not 
resist  falling  into  a  Train  of  Meditations  serious 
and  mournfully  pleasing.''^  Then,  as  Hervey 
moves  from  tomb  to  tomb  upon  the  "  lettered 
floor,"  he  gives  expression  to  the  thoughts  that 
come  to  him,  on  death,  the  uncertainty  of  human 
life,  the  state  of  the  righteous  and  the  wicked, 
etc.,  which  he  embodies  in  the  form  of  a  letter 
to  a  lady.  The  first  tomb  to  attract  his  attention 
is  that  of  an  infant,  and  his  reflections  thereupon 
and  Le  Tourneur's  rendering  are  very  charac- 
teristic of  both  authors. 

1  Meditations  and    Contemplations,   by  James  Hervey, 
15tli  edition,  London,  1759,  2  vols. 

G 


82  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

'^Yonder  white  stone^  Emblem  of  the  Innocence 
it  covers,  informs  the  Beholder  of  One,  who 
breath'd  out  its  tender  Soul,  almost  in  the  instant 
of  receiving  it.  .  .  .  There,  the  peaceful  Infant, 
without  so  much  as  knowing  what  Labour  and 
Vexation  mean,  '  lies  still  and  is  quiet,  it  sleeps 
and  is  at  Rest.'  ^  Staying  only  to  wash  away  its 
native  impurity  in  the  Laver  of  Regeneration, 
it  bid  a  speedy  Adieu  to  Time  and  Terrestrial 
Things.  .  .  .  What  did  the  little  hasty  Sojourner 
find,  so  forbidding  and  disgustful  in  our  upper 
World,  to  occasion  its  precipitant  exit?  .  .  . 
And  did  our  new-come  Stranger  begin  to  8ip 
the  cup  of  Life;  but  perceiving  the  bitterness, 
turn  away  its  Head,  and  refuse  the  Draught  P 
Was  this  the  cause,  why  the  wary  Babe  only 
opened  its  Eyes,  just  looked  on  the  Light,  and 
then  withdrew  into  the  more  inviting  regions  of 
undisturbed  Repose  ? 

"  Happy  Voyager  !  No  sooner  launched  than 
arrived  at  the  Haven  I  But  more  eminently 
happy  they  who  have  passed  the  Waves,  and 
weathered  all  the  storms,  of  a  troublesome  and 
dangerous  World  I  Who,  through  many  tribula- 
tions, have  entered  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven ; 
1  Job  iii.  13. 


THE  ENGLISH  SCHOOL   OF  MELANCHOLY     83 

and  thereby  brought  Honour  to  their  Divine 
Convoy,  administered  comfort  to  the  Compan- 
ions of  their  Toil,  and  left  an  instructive  Ex- 
ample to  succeeding  Pilgrims."^ 

"  Mais  quel  est  celui  que  couvre  cette  pierre 
dont  la  blancheur  pure  paroit  etre  I'embleme  de 
I'innocence  ?  .  .  .  Approchons.  .  .  .  C'est  un 
enfant  qui  regut  et  rendit  presque  au  meme  in- 
stant son  ^me  tendre  et  fugitive.  II  n'a  point 
connu  la  peine  et  la  douleur ;  il  ne  s'est  arrete 
qu'un  moment  aux  portes  de  la  vie,  pour  laver 
sa  tache  originelle,  et  aussit6t  il  a  dit  un  adieu 
rapide  au  tems  et  a  la  terre,  et  s'est  elance  du 
berceau  dans  la  tombe.  Qu'a-t-il  done  entrevu 
dans  notre  monde  de  si  rebutant  et  de  si  in- 
supportable, pour  en  sortir  si  brusquement? 
Seroit-ce  que  ce  jeune  etranger,  lorsqu'il  gouta 
la  vie,  trouva  la  coupe  trop  amere,  et  detour- 
nant  la  tete,  refusa  d'en  boire  davantage? 
Degoute  par  ce  premier  essai,  il  aura  fui  du 
monde  pour  se  sauver  dans  la  paix  du  tombeau 
qui  lui  sembla  plus  douce  et  plus  tranquille. 

"  Heureux  et  rapide  passager,  a  peine  tu  quit- 
tas  le  rivage,  que  tu  te  vis  entrer  dans  le  port ! 
Plus  que  toi,  pourtant,  ils  meritent  d'etre  heu- 
1  Hervey,  Meditations^  London,  1759,  p.  15. 


84  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

reux,  ceux  qui  ont  surmonte  les  flots  et  les  tern- 
petes  d'un  long  et  dangereux  trajet,  qui  ont 
soulage  dans  la  route  les  compagnons  de  leurs 
travaux  et  laisse  I'exemple  de  leur  courage  aux 
voyageurs  qui  les  suivent."  ^ 

Besides  the  Meditations^  this  volume  con- 
tained three  of  Hervey's  Letters  and  a  prose 
translation  of  Gray's  Elegy.  Le  Tourneur  adds 
in  a  note  that  he  inserts  it  because  it  seems  to 
him  written  with  "  taste,  force,  and  harmony,"  in 
addition  to  which  its  subject  is  analogous  to  the 
one  he  has  just  been  translating.  It  will  per- 
haps be  interesting  to  observe  his  degree  of  suc- 
cess, but  the  reader  accustomed  to  the  harmonious 
flow  of  the  English  lines  will  hardly  recognize 
them  in  their  colorless  and  ill-fitting  prose  dress. 

"  J'entends  le  son  de  la  cloche  funebre  qui 
annonce  la  fin  du  jour  ;  les  troupeaux  mugissans 
marchent  a  pas  lents,  et  tortueux  vers  Tetable  ; 
le  laboureur  fatigue  regagne  avec  effort  sa 
chaumiere,  il  abandonne  I'univei'S  a  Teffroi  des 
tenebres  et  a  I'horreur  de  mes  reflexions. 
******* 

"  Ainsi   mille   pierres    precieuses    sont  ren- 

1  Meditations  d/'Hervey^  traduites  par  Le  Tourneur,  Paris, 
1770,  p.  84. 


THE  ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF  MELANCHOLY     85 

f ermees  dans  les  sombres  cavites  des  montagnes ; 
mille  fleurs  naissantes  repandent  dans  les  deserts 
une  odeur  embaumee." 

These  stanzas  show  Le  Tourneur  in  one  of 
his  worst  moments.  Whether  lie  was  inaccurate 
from  ignorance  or  design,  it  is  hard  to  say. 
Did  he  disapprove  or  misunderstand  "  a  gem  of 
purest  ray  serene  "  and  was  it  as  a  concession  to 
taste  that  he  wrote  preeieuses  ?  Was  he  trying 
to  correct  an  error  on  Gray's  part  when  he 
wrote  montagnes  instead  of  ocSan  ?  Did  he  con- 
sider Stable  more  elegant  than  plaine  f  And  why 
did  he  include  "  born  to  blush  unseen  "  in  the 
comprehensive  and  colorless  naissantes  ?  To  such 
questions,  the  answer  must  remain  uncertain. 
Yet  a  careful  study  of  Le  Tourneur's  work  as  a 
translator  reveals  so  great  a  general  understand- 
ing of  English,  so  much  skill  in  preserving  the 
idea  through  the  medium  of  paraphrase,  so  much 
clearness  of  judgment  in  the  appreciation  of  lit- 
erature, and  so  much  care  and  conscientious- 
ness in  method,  that  it  is  difficult  to  attribute 
all  his  inaccuracy  to  ignorance  or  carelessness. 
It  seems  more  probable  that  as  Young  "  dedai- 
gnoit  d'avoir  du  gout,"  he  disdained  to  be  faith- 
ful to  his  text,  and  in  many  cases,  at  least, 


86  PIERRE  LE   TOURNEUR 

deliberately  paraphrased  for  the  sake  of  better 
suiting  his  purpose  as  interpreter  of  ideas,  rather 
than  of  words. 

The  second  volume  of  Hervey's  Meditations^ 
which  contain  his  reflections  upon  nature,  was 
translated,  not  by  Le  Tourneur,  but  by  Pey- 
ron.i  jJq  }jad  already  translated  independently 
the  Meditations  in  a  Flower  Garden^  and  had 
given  them  to  the  same  bookseller  who  was 
publishing  Le  Tourneur's  work.  Apparently 
he  and  Le  Tourneur  came  to  an  amicable  ar- 
rangement of  collaboration,  for  Le  Tourneur 
reviewed  Peyron's  translation  and  it  was  pub- 
lished as  the  second  part  of  his  own,  with 
Peyron's  name  on  the  title-page. ^  These  medi- 
tations, although  somewhat  more  flowery  in 
style,  are  of  the  same  general  character  as  the 

1  Peyron,  Jean  Francois  (1748-1784),  translator,  com- 
missioner of  the  Colonies,  secretary  of  M.  de  Bussy,  trans- 
lator of  Nouvelles  Lettres  persanes  (Lyttleton),  1770;  Le 
Fourhe  (Congreve),  1775;  V Homme  et  la  Femme  sensibles 
(Mackenzie),  1775;  Choix  de  Lettres  de  Lord  Chesterfield^ 
1776 ;  Jeux  de  Calliope^  Collection  de  poemes  anglois^ 
italiens,  allemands,  espagnols,  1776. 

'^  Meditations  d^Hervey,  traduites  par  M.  Peyron  et  revues 
par  M.  Le  Tourneur,  Seconde  Partie,  Paris,  1771. 

This  volume  contains  also :  Les  funerailles  d*Arabertt 
Beligieux  de  la  Trappe,  Poeme  de  M.  Jerningham. 


THE   ENGLISH   SCHOOL   OF  MELANCHOLY     87 

others,  and  differ  from  them  only  in  revealing 
a  sincere  and  unaffected  love  for  nature. 

The  public  greeted  this  new  acquisition  in 
the  genre  sombre  with  appreciative  interest,  if 
not  with  overwhelming  enthusiasm.  The  Nuits 
cf  Young  still  fully  satisfied  its  love  for  mel- 
ancholy and  it  did  not  find  Hervey  his  superior 
or  his  equal.  The  AnnSe  Litter  aire  even  went 
so  far  as  to  question  Hervey's  genius  and  his 
taste .1  The  Avant  Coureur^  on  the  contrary, 
declared  that  Hervey  had  "  le  sentiment  vif,  I'im- 
agination  ardente,  le  style  noble  et  sublime."  ^ 
But  however  diverse  popular  feeling  might  be 
in  regard  to  the  author,  it  was  of  one  mind 
concerning  the  merit  of  its  favorite  transla- 
tor. 

"  II  est  impossible  de  vivre  mieux  qu'Hervey, 
et  difficile  d'ecrire  aussi  bien  que  M.  Le  Tour- 
neur,"  writes  one  critic  from  The  Hague,^  and 

1  "  Quelquefois  mgme  I'Auteur  Anglois  manque  de  goftt, 
sa  MMitation  sur  le  tombeau  d'un  enfant  en  est  un  exemple 
...  on  y  reconnoit  toujours  un  certain  air  guind^,  de  la 
ggne,  un  tour  p^nible,  et  je  ne  sais  quoi  de  fatigant  qui 
accable."  —  Annee  Litteraire,  September,  1770. 

2  L^  Avant  Coureur,  Aug.  6,  1770. 

8  Bihlioiheque  des  Sciences  et  des  Beaux  Arts,  La  Haye, 
1771. 


88  PIERRE   LE   TOURNEUR 

this  seems  to  have  been  the  general  consensus 
of  opinion. 

Editions  of  Hervey  were  frequent,  and  the 
Meditations  were  often  printed  with  the  works 
of  Young,  and  formed  part  of  the  Nuits  as  late 
as  1824.1 

Even  while  France  was  listening  with  delight 
to  the  melancholy  strains  of  Young  and  Hervey, 
another  poet  from  across  the  sea  was  playing  a 
still  more  plaintive  and  penetrating  music,  softly 
as  yet,  but  gradually  louder  and  clearer,  till 
he  caught  the  attentive  ear  of  Le  Tourneur,  who 
then  heralded  his  approach  with  a  loud  blare  of 
trumpets  which  almost  drowned  the  slow,  deep 
notes  of  the  Thoughts  and  Meditations, 

In  1760  James  Macpherson  published  in 
Edinburgh  the  first  of  his  so-called  translations 
from  the  Gaelic  poems  of  Ossian.^  They  at 
once  crossed  the  English  Channel  and  in  the 
same  year  French  translations  of  some  of  them 
by  Turgot  appeared  in  the  Journal  Etranger? 

1  Xes  Nuits  d'  Toung,  suivies  des  M6ditations  sur  les 
Tombeaux  d' Hervey,     Paris,  1824,  2  vols,  in  8vo. 

2  Fragments  of  Ancient  Poetry,  17C0  ;  Fingal,  1762  ; 
Temora  and  Other  Poems  of  Ossian,  1763. 

8  Journal  Etranger,  September,  1760 ;  Connal  et  Cri- 
mora,  Byno  et  Alpin. 


THE   ENGLISH   SCHOOL   OF  MELANCHOLY     89 

The  new  kind  of  literature  was  well  received. 
"  Cela  est  beau  comme  Homere,"  wrote  Grimm. ^ 
Thus  encouraged,  the  Journal  Etranger  con- 
tinued to  print  translations  from  the  new  poet 
and  during  the  next  two  years  published  parts 
of  Fingal^  Lathmore^  Oithona^  Bar  Thula^  Conlath^ 
and  Cuthona,  translated  by  the  Abbe  Suard.^ 
In  1760  the  Duchesse  d'Aiguillon  translated 
Carthon.^ 

Ossian  was  by  this  time  beginning  to  attract 
attention,  and  now  in  France,  as  in  England, 
arose  a  hot  discussion  as  to  his  historical 
identity,  which  waged  in  the  literary  periodi- 
cals for  several  years.*  This,  together  with 
the  impossibility  of  arriving  at  any  definite 
decision,  naturally  increased,  rather  than  di- 
minished, the  popularity  of  Ossian.  In  1768 
the  translations  made  by  Turgot  and  Suard 
for   the   Journal  Etranger^  were  collected  and 

^  Correspondance  litteraire,  avril,  1762. 

2  Journal  Etranger,  December,  1761 ;  January,  February, 
April,  July,  1762. 

3  Carthon,  po6me  traduit  de  I'anglois  par  Mme.  *  *  * 
Londres,  1762.     Cf.  also  Memoires  secrets,  Feb.  20,  1762. 

*  Journal  des  Savants,  February,  November,  1762  ;  May, 
June,  September,  December,  1764 ;  Gazette  litteraire,  1764, 
1765. 


©0  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

published  in  the  latter's  VariStSs  LittSraireB.^ 
Three  years  later,  Le  Tourneur  brought  out 
two  small  volumes  entitled  Choix  de  Contes  et 
de  PoSdes  erses.^  The  second  volume  of  this 
work  contained,  besides  a  series  of  English 
Letters,  fourteen  short  translations,  some  com- 
plete, some  extracts,  of  the  poems  of  Ossian. 
They  are,  for  the  most  part,  the  more  lyrical 
passages,  such  as  the  Description  af  a  Night  in 
October,  Minvane,  Lathmon,  etc.,  which  would 
appeal  at  once  to  a  public  already  enjoying 
the  more  outspoken  melancholy  of  Young  and 
Hervey.  These  poems,  too,  were  sad,  but  with 
a  gentle,  mysterious  sadness,  and  they  had  a 
delicate  beauty  of  imagination  and  pastel-like 
descriptions  of  nature  and  human  love,  which 
fell  gratefully  upon  ears  a  trifle  wearied,  per- 
haps, by  songs  of  human  wretchedness  and 
religious  consolation.  Hence,  this  addition  to 
the  few  translations  of  Ossian,  which  were 
already  known,  was  felt  to  be  a  distinct  acquisi- 
tion, and  especially  was  the  world  of  letters 
glad  to  welcome  anything  new  from  the  hand 

1  Suard,  Varietes  Litteraires^  Paris,  1768. 

2  Choix  de  Contes  et  de  PoSsies  erses,  traduits  de  PAn- 
glois  par  M.  Le  Tourneur,  Paris,  1771,  2  vols,  in  8vo. 


THE  ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF  MELANCHOLY     91 

of  its  favorite  interpreter  of  English  litera- 
ture. The  translation  was  made  "avec  gout,"^ 
which  was  high  praise,  and  the  poetry  itself 
was  "simple  and  sublime." 2  One  of  the  most 
admired  passages  was  the  apostrophe  to  the 
star  in  Minona,  which  is  familiar  to  modern 
readers  in  the  poetic  rendering  of  Alfred  de 
Musset.^ 

"  Etoile,  compagne  de  la  nuit,  dont  la  tete 
sort  brillante  des  nuages  du  couchant,  et  dont 
les  pas  majestueux  s'impriment  sur  I'azur  du 
firmament,  que  regardes-tu  dans  la  plaine  ?  Les 
vents  orageux  du  jour  se  taisent.  Le  bruit  du 
torrent  semble  s'etre  eloigne.  Les  flots  adoucis 
rampent  au  pied  des  rochers.  Les  moucherons 
du  soir,  rapidement  portes  sur  leurs  ailes  legeres, 
remplissent  de  leurs  bourdonnements  le  silence 
des  airs.     Etoile  brillante  que  regardes-tu  dans 

1  Annee  Litteraire,  1772,  Vol.  III. 

2  "Les  poesies  erses  ont  de  tr^s  grandes  beaut^s,  des 
images  frappantes,  une  expression  grande  et  Snergique." 

—  Journal  encyclopedique,  June,  1772. 

8  ' '  pale  etoile  du  soir,  messagfere  lointaine 

Dont  le  front  sort  brillant  des  voiles  du  couchant, 
De  ton  palais  d'azur,  au  sein  du  firmament, 
Que  regardes-tu  dans  la  plaine  ?  " 

—  Le  Saule  II. 


92  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

la  plaine  ?  Mais  je  te  vols  t'abaisser  sur  les 
bords  de  rhorizon.  Deja  tu  te  places  dans  les 
eaux ;  les  vagues  se  rassemblent  autour  de  toi,  et 
baignent  ton  airaable  chevelure.  Adieu,  etoile 
silencieuse.  Que  la  lumiere  de  mon  genie  brille 
a  ta  place."  ^ 

It  might  easily  be  supposed  that  with  this 
favorable  reception,  Le  Tourneur,  who  was  not 
slow  to  perceive  and  to  take  advantage  of  the 
trend  of  popular  taste,  would  have  at  once  pre- 
pared a  complete  translation  of  the  Gaelic  poet. 
It  is  indeed  probable  that  only  lack  of  time 
prevented  him  from  undertaking  this  congenial 
task.  But  besides  the  translations  of  Young 
and  Hervey,  he  was  busy  this  same  year  with 
the  Lives  of  Savage  and  Thomson,  and  the 
History  of  Charles  V,  and  was  very  likely  en- 
gaged upon  the  translation  of  Shakespeare.  So 
it  was  not  until  1777  that  he  found  the  requisite 
leisure  to  introduce  Ossian  fully  and  ceremo- 
niously to  France.^  The  poet's  entry  then, 
though  late,  was  in  the  nature  of  a  triumph, 

1  Choix,  de  Contes  et  de  Pohies  erses,  Vol.  II.  p.  72. 

2  Ossian,  Fils  de  Fingal,  Barde  du  Troisieme  Siecle. 
Poesies  Oalliques^  traduites  sur  I'Anglois  de  M.  Macpherson 
par  M.  Le  Tourneur,  l*aris,  1777,  2  vols,  in  8vo  (Approb., 
17  novembre,  1774 ;  Privilege,  16  mars,  1776). 


THE   ENGLISH   SCHOOL   OF  MELANCHOLY     93 

and  soon,  thanks  to  Le  Tourneur's  interpreta- 
tion, he  became  a  well-known  and  influential 
figure  in  European  literature. 

The  translation  itself  is  a  distinct  advance 
in  ease  and  accuracy  upon  those  of  Young  and 
Hervey,  and  few  liberties  have  been  taken  with 
the  text.  How  nearly  faithful  Le  Tourneur 
could  be  when  he  chose,  will  be  seen  from  the 
following  lines : 

"The  setting  sun  was  yellow  on  Dora. 
Grey  evening  began  to  descend.  Temora's 
woods  shook  with  the  blast  of  the  inconstant 
wind.  A  cloud  at  length  gathered  in  the 
West,  and  a  red  star  looked  from  behind  its 
edge.  I  stood  in  the  wood  alone,  and  saw  a 
ghost  on  the  darkening  air.  His  stride  ex- 
tended from  hill  to  hill;  his  shield  was  dim 
on  his  side.  It  was  the  son  of  Semo  ;  I  knew 
the  warrior's  face.  But  he  passed  away  in 
his  blast;  and  all  was  dark  around." —  Temora, 
Bk.  I.i 

"  Le  soleil  couchant  jaunissoit  le  sommet  du 

Dora,  le  soir  commengoit  a  meler  au  jour  son 

ombre  grisatre ;  d'inegales  bouffees  de  vent  agi- 

toient  par  intervalles  les  bois  de  Temora.     Un 

1  Ossian,     Poems,  London,  1765,  Vol.  II.  p.  24. 


94  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

nuage  epais  se  forma  lentement  au  couchant, 
h  la  pointe  du  nuage  paroissoit  une  etoile  rouge- 
atre  ;  j'etois  reste  seul  dans  la  foret.  Tout  a 
coup,  j'appergois  un  phantome  dans  les  airs. 
Ses  pas  s'etendoient  d'une  colline  a  I'autre,  ses 
flancs  etoient  couverts  de  son  bouclier  tene- 
breux.  C'etoit  le  fils  de  Semo.  Je  reconnus 
les  traits  de  CuchuUier,  mais  11  passa  rapide- 
ment  dans  un  tourbillon  de  vent,  et  bient6t  les 
tenebres  de  la  nuit  le  deroberent  a  ma  vue." 
—  Temora,  Bk.  I. 

The  Discours  PrSUminaire  which  Le  Tourneur 
prefixed  to  his  translation,  is  composed  almost 
entirely  of  extracts  from  Macpherson's  essays  on 
Ossian,  and  contains  little  of  his  own  judgments 
or  appreciation.  Towards  the  end,  however,  a 
few  significant  lines  indicate  as  much  bitterness 
as  the  gentle  soul  of  Le  Tourneur  seems  to 
have  been  capable  of  expressing,  and  show  that 
the  Voltaire-Shakespeare  quarrel  had  left  him 
a  sadder,  if  not  a  wiser,  man.  Macpherson,  and 
Cesarotti,  who  had  translated  Ossian  into  Italian, 
had  compared  the  Gothic  bard  to  Homer.  Com- 
menting upon  this,  Le  Tourneur  without  going 
so  far  in  enthusiasm,  declares  that  nevertheless 
Ossian  is  a  great  poet,  and  is  ready  to  hold  to 


THE  ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF  MELANCHOLY     95 

tins  opinion,  even  in  the  face  of  literary  excom- 
munication.^ 

But  Le  Tourneur  need  not  have  feared.  It 
was  he,  not  Macpherson,  who  received  the  grate- 
ful thanks  of  the  literary  world  for  the  service 
rendered  in  bringing  Ossian  to  its  attention. 
His  translation  was  welcomed  with  an  enthusi- 
asm equaled  only  by  that  accorded  his  Young 
and  Shakespeare,  and,  like  them,  it  remained 
the  standard  until  well  on  into  the  nineteenth 
century.  La  Harpe,  who  had  been,  at  first, 
coldly  critical,  characterized  the  translation  as 
"  correct  and  elegant "  ;  ^  the  Journal  de  Paris, 

1  "  II  n'est  pas  inutile  d'avertir  ici  que  cette  opinion  leur 
appartient,  et  que  I'exposer,  ce  n'est  pas  Padopter  sans 
reserve.  Cette  precaution  devient  d'autant  plus  n^cessaire, 
qu'aujourd'hui  un  sentiment  d'enthousiasrae  pour  le  g6nie 
d'un  Pofete  Stranger  est  presque  mis  au  rang  des  crimes ; 
qu'il  faut  en  Litt^rature  ne  pas  oubiier  de  faire  sa  pro- 
fession de  gout,  sous  peine  d'encourir  une  esp^ce  d'excom- 
munication  litt^raire,  et  que  certains  principes,  fort  sages, 
^  la  v^rit^,  mais  qui  n'enferment  pas  toutes  les  bornes  de 
I'art,  sont  drig^s  en  dogmes  sacr^s  hors  desquels  il  n'est 
plus  ni  m^rite  ni  salut.  Sans  placer  Ossian  sur  la  meme 
ligne  qu'Hom^re,  nous  sommes  persuades  qu'il  fut  aussi  un 
grand  Pofete,  qu'il  y  a  une  foule  de  beaut^s  et  de  traits 
pr^cieux  dans  ses  Po6mes,  et  qu'apr^s  la  lecture  de  cette 
collection,  on  saura  gr6  ^  M.  Macpherson  du  service  qu'il  a 
rendu  ^  la  Litt^rature. " 

2  La  Harpe,  Cours  de  Litterature,  Paris,  1863,  Vol.  XL 
p.  728. 


96  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

pronounced  it  "energetic,  free,  and  pictur- 
esque," ^  and  Fontanes  expressed  the  general 
opinion  in  enthusiastic,  if  in  somewhat  halting, 
verses :  ^ 

"  O  Le  Tourneur  !     6  toi  dont  la  prose  bardie 
Des  vers  audacieux  osa  presque  imiter 

L'inimitable  melodie, 
Tu  decouvris  plus  d'une  fois 
Des  tresors  inconnus  aux  muses  de  notre  ^ge, 
Et  quoique,  de  nos  vers  meconiiaissant  les  droits, 
Tu  sembles  reprouver  leur  utile  esclavage. 
Des  poetes  fran^ais  je  te  porte  rhommage. 

Mais  puis-je  esperer  que  ma  voix 

Leur  rendra  jamais  ton  suffrage  ?  '* 

Ossian,  like  Young,  exercised  an  undeniable 
influence  upon  European  literature,  and  was  an 
important  factor  in  the  first  faint  beginnings 
of  the  Romantic  movement.  His  poetry  was 
translated  into  Italian,  Spanish,  Swedish,  and 
Dutch,  but  its  sphere  of  greatest  influence  was 
in  France  ^  and  Germany.*     It  created  almost  a 

1  Journal  de  Paris^  Mar.  25,  1777. 

2  Eontanes,  CEuvres,  Paris,  1839,  Vol.  I.  p.  396. 

8  For  Ossian  in  France,  see  Journal  des  Dehats^  Nov.  13 
and  27,  1894,  two  articles  by  Arv6de  Barine.  Also  Texte, 
J.  J.  Bousseau  et  le  CosmopoUtisme  litteraire.    Paris,  1896. 

*  For  Ossian  in  Germany,  see  Bailey  Saunders,  Life 
and  Letters  of  James  Macpherson.  London,  1894.  Ossiaji 
in  Germany^  Rudolf  Tombo.    New  York,  1901. 


THE   ENGLISH   SCHOOL  OF   MELANCHOLY     97 

revolution  in  Klopstock's  circle.  Its  influence 
was  strongly  felt  by  Goethe,  and  shown  espe- 
cially in  Werther,  where  the  hero  says,  "  Ossian 
has  supplanted  Homer  in  my  heart,"  and  it 
was  Ossian  that  he  and  Charlotte  were  reading 
on  that  last  fatal  night. 

In  France,  Ossian's  influence  was  even  more 
widespread,  although,  at  first.  La  Harpe  and 
Voltaire  and  others  held  somewhat  aloof.  ^  But 
they  were  exceptions  and  were  powerless  to 
check  the  steady,  onward  flow  of  the  current. 
Other  men  of  letters  followed  Le  Tourneur's  ex- 
ample, notably  Baour-Lormian,  who  in  1801  made 
a  translation,  expressly,  it  is  said,  for  the  use  of 
the  French  army.  Cesarotti's  Italian  version 
was  Napoleon's  favorite  reading  and  the  trans- 
lator was  handsomely  rewarded.  Mme.  de  Stael 
devoted  a  chapter  in  her  LittSrature  to  the 
discussion  of  the  statement,  "II  existe,  ce  me 
semble,  deux  litteratures  tout  a  fait  distinctes, 

1  Journal  encyclopedique,    January,  1762. 

"Tout  son  m^rite  (Fingal)  consiste  h,  peu  pr6s  dans  son 
antiquity.  Une  traduction  frangoise  de  cet  ouvrage  seroit 
certainement  insupportable."  To  which  Lessing  replies, 
"Desto  schlimmer  fiir  die  Frauzosen."  {Collectaneen  aus 
dem  Nachlass.^ 


98  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

celle  qui  vient  du  midi  et  celle  qui  descend  du 
Nord,  celle  dont  Homere  est  la  premiere  source, 
celle  dont  Ossian  est  Torigine-''^  Two  years 
later,  Chateaubriand,  in  the  GSnie  du  Chris- 
tianisme^  described  his  impressions  upon  reading 
Ossian .2  Lamartine,  in  his  Confidences^  speaks 
of  the  admiration  he  felt  in  his  youth  for  these 
Gaelic  poems. ^  Alfred  de  Musset  put  into  liquid 
measures  the  beginning  of  the  Chants  de  Selma 
already  quoted,  and  the  poetry  of  Leopardi  has 
echoes  of  Ossian's  weird  and  plaintive  music. 
Edgar  Quinet  felt  the  spell,*  and  George  Sand 
read  Ossian  to  divert  her  from  the  sorrows  of 
her  married  life.^  Furthermore,  a  tragedy,^ 
several  paintings,^  and  an  opera  ^  testified  to  the 
hold  which  the  Gaelic  poet  had  taken  upon 
French  minds  and  hearts. 

The  publication  of  Ossian's  poems  in  1777 
concluded  Le  Tourneur's  work  as  the  inter- 
preter of  English  poetry  of  the  school  of  melan- 

1  Mm  de.  Stael,  De  la  Litterature,  Chap.  XI. 

2  Chateaubriand,  Le  Genie  du  Christianisme^  Chap.  IV. 
8  Lamartine,  Les  Confidences^  Bk.  VI.  pp.  6-10. 

*  Edgar  Quinet,  Histoire  de  mes  Idees^  p.  132. 

fi  George  Sand,  Histoire  de  ma  Vie,  Vol.  IV.  Chap.  I. 

8  Amauld,  Oscar,  Fils  d' Ossian,  1796. 

'  Girodet-Tnoson,  1802. 

8  Lesueur,  Les  Bardes,  1804. 


THE   ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF  MELANCHOLY     99 

choly.  Henceforward,  with  the  exception  of 
Shakespeare  and  Ariosto,  he  was  to  devote  him- 
self to  the  translation  of  prose,  and  although 
his  later  labors  far  exceeded  the  earlier  in  bulk, 
these  first  half  dozen  volumes  contain  what  is 
best  and  most  enduring  of  his  work.  His  Young, 
Hervey,  and  Ossian  introduced  a  new  kind  of 
literature  to  France  and  gave  a  vigorous  im- 
pulse to  the  movement  which  was  to  dominate 
European  literature  for  the  next  fifty  years. 
His  translations  of  these  three  authors  long  re- 
mained the  standard  of  interpretation  of  what 
was  felt  to  be  the  best  in  English  literature,  and 
are,  thus,  significant  in  the  study  of  English  in- 
fluence upon  Continental  letters.  To  the  modern 
scientific  scholar  they  are  in  many  ways  exas- 
perating, and  he  is  tempted  at  first  sight  to 
pronounce  them  practically  worthless.  As  a 
translator,  Le  Tourneur  is  far  from  perfect.  He 
is  frequently  inaccurate,  he  is  often  high  flown 
and  bombastic  in  style  where  he  should  be  sim- 
ple and  direct,  he  takes  great  liberties  with  his 
text,  omitting,  adding,  transposing,  paraphrasing 
at  his  own  will,  with  a  boldness  and  freedom  cal- 
culated to  scandalize  the  conscientious  worker. 
The  fact  that  his  contemporaries  not  only  ex- 


100  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

cused,  but  actually  approved,  this  apparently 
unjustifiable  method,  simply  shows  that  there 
was,  in  the  eighteenth  century  critical  mind,  an 
entirely  different  conception  of  the  duties  and 
prerogatives  of  the  translator  from  that  which 
obtains  to-day ;  and  this  must  be  kept  in  mind 
in  any  judgment  of  Le  Tourneur's  work.  He 
is  an  interpreter  of  literature  rather  than  a 
translator;  a  prism,  which  catches  and  reflects 
in  many  colored  lights,  rather  than  a  mirror, 
which  clearly  shows  objects  as  they  actually  are. 
From  this  point  of  view  he  succeeded  admirably 
in  his  undertaking.  With  all  his  faults,  he  still 
manages  to  seize  the  essential  meaning,  to  catch 
and  preserve  the  atmosphere  of  the  original, 
adding  at  the  same  time  a  delicate  flavor  of  his 
own  which  blends  harmoniously  and  almost 
imperceptibly  with  that  of  his  author.  What 
Young  loses  of  his  stately  blank  verse  and  his 
impressive  periods,  he  gains  in  clearness  and 
directness  and  in  the  cameolike  rearrangement 
of  his  immense  masses  of  material.  Hervey's 
lugubrious  reflections  lose  the  grotesque  touches 
which  unintentionally  enliven  them,  but  gain 
in  elegance  and  conciseness ;  and  through  the 
stilted  prose  of  Le  Tourneur  may  still  be  felt 


THE  ENGLISH  SCHOOL  OF  MELANCHOLY     101 

much   of  the  weird,  mysterious  charm  of   the 
Ossianic  poems. 

Le  Tourneur's  end  seems  to  have  justified  his 
means,  and  his  method  proved  successful  by  its 
results.  At  all  events,  it  was  well  suited  to  his 
public  and  his  time.  It  is,  indeed,  a  question 
whether  an  accurate  and  scientific  translation 
would  or  could  have  accomplished  the  work  of 
his  adaptations ;  whether  France,  worshiping 
devoutly  at  the  shrine  of  Le  Bon  Croilt,  would 
have  admired  or  welcomed  these  English  poets 
in  all  their  "barbaric  crudeness."  It  may  be 
doubted  whether,  if  Young,  Hervey,  and  Ossian 
had  been  introduced  to  France  with  less  prep- 
aration and  less  ceremony,  they  would  have 
been  received  with  as  much  enthusiasm  and 
gained  as  rapidly  as  firm  a  foothold  in  France. 
That  they  did  so  is,  of  course,  due  in  part  to 
the  stage  of  development  of  literary  taste  which 
France  had  then  reached.  The  time  was  ripe 
for  their  appearance ;  all  circumstances  were 
favorable.  Nevertheless,  their  great  success 
and  their  widespread  influence  must  have  been 
due  in  part  to  the  work  of  Le  Tourneur,  who 
had  the  power  and  the  skill  so  to  present  these 
unusual  strangers  to  his  countrymen  that  they 


102  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

were  no  longer  aliens,  but  became  at  once  citi- 
zens of  France.  It  is  perhaps  not  too  much  to 
say  that  without  his  insight,  his  good  judgment, 
and  his  tact,  the  success  of  the  Grave  Yard 
School  of  poetry  in  France  would  have  been 
smaller,  and  the  march  of  the  Romantic  Move- 
ment perceptibly  retarded. 


IV.   MINOR  TRANSLATIONS:  ENGLISH, 
GERMAN,   ITALIAN 

The  translator  of  Young,  Ossian,  and  Shake- 
speare did  not  confine  himself  to  these  consider- 
able achievements.  During  the  eighteen  years 
following  the  appearance  of  the  JVuits,  he  pro- 
duced about  a  dozen  other  translations  of  vary- 
ing length  and  interest.  They  are,  for  the  most 
part,  from  English  literature,  although  he  tried 
his  hand  at  one  or  two  German  works  and  even 
experimented  with  Italian  poetry.  These  trans- 
lations include  moral  tales,  novels,  biography, 
history,  stories  of  exploration  and  adventure,  a 
single  religious  work,  and  a  volume  of  poetry. 
But  in  spite  of  this  wide  range  of  subjects  Le 
Tourneur  seems  to  have  had  no  fixed  system 
of  selection  from  the  vast  field  of  literature. 
Whether  he  was  forced  by  circumstances  to  de- 
vote himself  to  a  sort  o^  hack  work,  or  whether 
he  lost  the  fine  sense  of  discrimination  and 
appreciation  which  led  him  to  choose  to  inter- 
103 


104  PIERRE   LE   TOURNEUR 

pret  Shakespeare,  it  would  be  difficult  to  deter- 
mine. The  fact  remains  that  with  the  exception 
of  Clarissa  Harlowe  and  Robertson's  History  of 
Charles  F".,  he  translated  nothing  of  any  perma- 
nent or  intrinsic  literary  value.  His  labors  during 
these  years  were  confined  to  works  of  a  purely 
temporary  interest,  which  have  fallen  into  more 
or  less  obscurity,  and  the  originals  of  which,  in 
some  cases,  it  has  been  impossible  to  trace.  They 
represent  no  one  school  or  phase  of  literary 
development,  but  seem  rather  to  be  the  hap- 
hazard work  of  an  omnivorous  reader  who  set 
himself  to  translate  whatever  struck  his  individ- 
ual fancy.  Any  serious  attempt  to  group  them 
thus  becomes  impracticable,  and  they  will  best 
be  considered,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  order  in 
which  Le  Tourneur  produced  them. 

True  to  his  promise  of  1770  to  abandon  ceme- 
teries and  yew  trees,  he  published,  the  following 
year,  a  Choix  de  Conies  et  de  PoSsies  erses}  The 
fourteen  Contes  which  fill  the  first  volume  con- 
sist of  short  moral  tales  somewhat  after  the 
manner  of  Marmontel.  The  scene  is  generally 
laid  in  England,  although  there  is  one  in  Green- 

1  Choix  de  Contes  et  de  Poesies  erses,  traduits  de  1' Anglois, 
par  M.  Le  Tourneur,  Paris,  1771,  2  vols,  in  8vo. 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  105 

land,^  one  in  Spain,^  one  in  Persia,^  and  one  in 
India.*  There  is,  however,  little  local  color, 
and  they  are  rather  mediocre  in  theme  and 
treatment,  with  only  now  and  then  a  touch  of 
grace  or  humor.  Such  a  sentence  as  "  Un  Roi 
de  Perse  eut  le  genie  de  se  douter  que  ses  flat- 
teurs  pouvoient  mentir  "  ^  is  suJB&ciently  rare  to 
make  it  noticeable,  and  marks  the  beginning  of 
one  of  the  most  graceful  stories  in  the  collection. 
The  ordinary  themes  are  employed,  such  as  the 
reward  of  virtue,  fraternal  love,  the  cruel  step- 
mother, the  folly  of  judging  from  appearances, 
the  consequences  of  a  hasty  marriage,  and  the 
like,  and  their  development  shows  little  inge- 
nuity or  originality. 

The  most  pleasing  are  perhaps  Eudoxie^  ou  le 
beau  projet  de  solitude^  and  Les  Amours  de 
Groenland.  The  former  relates  how  a  young 
girl,  upon  the  death  of  her  mother,  decides  to 
spend  her  life  in  pious  solitude  on  one  of  her 
country  estates.  The  lover,  Alphenor,  who,  if 
young  in  years,  is  old  in  wisdom,  stipulates  only 
that  he  may  come  to  visit  her  after  three  months 

1  Ammingait  et  Ajut.  ^  j^q  Ministre  Berger. 

2  Le  Ministre  Philosophe.  *  Ou  trouver  des  Amis. 

s  Le  Ministre  Berger. 


106  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

have  elapsed.  Eudoxie  is  perfectly  happy.  The 
first  week  she  spends  in  arranging  the  house, 
and  the  second  in  pious  devotions.  The  third, 
she  begins  to  be  bored,  and  by  the  fourth  she  is 
looking  eagerly  forward  to  the  coming  of  Al- 
phenor.  This  the  wily  youth  purposely  delays, 
and  when  he  at  length  appears,  it  is  to  tel].  his 
mistress,  with  a  sigh  of  admiration  for  her  and 
despair  for  himself,  that  he,  too,  has  been  living 
the  solitary  life,  and  finds  it  absolutely  unbear- 
able. At  hearing  this  expression  of  her  own 
feelings,  Eudoxie  lets  fall  a  tear.  " '  Que  vous 
6tes  obligeante,'  lui  dit  Alphenor,  '  d'etre  si 
sensible  au  malheur  de  votre  ami.' "  Confessions 
and  explanations  follow,  the  two  are  united,  and 
presumably  live  happy  ever  after. 

The  charm  of  the  Greenland  story  lies  ii^  its 
unusual  local  color,  and  in  the  lyric  touches, 
especially  in  Ajut's  prayer  for  her  lover  who 
leaves  her  to  seek  his  fortune  in  the  winter  sea.^ 

1  "Puissent  ses  mains  §tre  plus  fortes  que  les  griffes  de 
I'ours  ;  ses  pieds  plus  Idgers  que  les  pieds  du  renne !  puisse 
sa  fl^che  ne  manquer  jamais  son  but,  et  son  bateau  ne 
fairs  jamais  eau  1  puisse-t-il  ne  jamais  tomber  sur  les  gla^ 
50ns  ou  s'^vanouir  dans  les  flots  1  que  le  veau  marin  vienne 
de  lui-m§me  se  prendre  k  son  harpon,  et  que  la  baleine  bles- 
s6e  de  son  dard  s'agite  en  vain  dans  les  vagues  1  *'  Choiz  de 
Contes,  p.  190. 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  107 

The  Lettres  Angloises}  which,  together  with 
the  Poesies  erses,  form  the  second  volume,  con- 
tinue the  moral  instruction  of  the  tales  in  a 
series  of  letters  upon  Le  Bonheur^  Des  Mariages 
prematures,  L'AmitiS,  Le  Jeu,  and  similar  sub- 
jects. They  contain  much  sound  advice  and 
common  sense,  but  little  originality  of  thought 
or  treatment.  The  best  is  one  on  "  Le  Tems," 
in  which  the  author  relates  a  dream.  He  found 
himself  before  the  throne  of  Rhadamanthus, 
who  was  that  day  assigning  their  places  to  the 
souls  of  women,  sending  them  to  Tartarus  on 
his  left,  or  to  the  Elysian  Fields  on  his  right. 
" '  Madame,'  dit-il  a  la  premiere,  '  vous  avez  ete 
environ  cinquante  ans  sur  la  terre,  qu'avez-vous 
fait  pendant  tout  ce  tems-la?'  *  Ce  que  j'ai 
fait,'  dit-elle,  '  en  verite  je  n'en  sais  rien,  ce 
que  j'ai  fait ;  il  faudroit  me  donner  quelque 
tems  pour  me  recueillir  et  me  le  rappeler.' 
Apres  une  demi-heure  de  reflexion,  elle  repondit 
qu'elle  les  avoit  passes  a  jouer  au  Whist ;  1^- 
dessus  Rhadamanthus  dit  au  geolier  de  sa 
gauche  de  s'en  charger."     The  second  woman 

1  Two  of  these  Lettres  Angloises,  are  addressed  to  Le 
Guardien,  which  might  mean  the  English  periodical  The 
Guardian. 


108  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

had  spent  her  time  reading  novels,  another 
in  making  pomade,  but  there  came,  finally,  a 
"bonne  menagdre  de  campagne  toute  unie:  'he 
bien,  ma  chere,'  dit  Rhadamanthus,  '  qu'avez- 
vous  fait?'  '  Monseigneur,  je  n'ai  pas  vecu 
tout  a  fait  quarante  ans.  Pendant  ce  tems-la, 
j'ai  donne  sept  filles  a  mon  mari,  je  lui  ai 
fait  neuf  mille  fromages,  et  je  I'ai  laisse  avec 
ma  fiUe  ainee  pour  avoir  soin  du  menage  pen- 
dant mon  absence,  et  je  peux  me  vanter  que 
c'est  une  des  bonnes  menageres  qu'il  y  ait  dans 
le  canton.'  Rhadamanthus  sourit  de  la  simpli- 
cite  de  cette  bonne  femme  et  la  consigna  au 
Portier  des  Champs  Elysees."  ^ 

These  tales,  slight  as  they  were,  were  received 
with  pleasure  by  a  public  already  a  little  sati- 
ated with  the  gloomy  reflections  of  Young  and 
Hervey.  The  Annee  LittSraire'^  in  particular, 
spoke  of  them  with  enthusiasm  and  quoted  the 
description  of  the  Abbess  in  Eudoxie  as  a  por- 
trait worthy  of  the  pen  of  La  Bruyere.^     Igno- 

1  Choix  de  Contes  et  de  Poesies  erses,  Vol.  II.  p.  164. 

2  Annee  Litteraire,  June,  1772. 

'  "  L'abbesse  dtoit  un  vrai  module  de  chastet^,  il  est  vrai 
que  cette  vertu  n'^toit  pas  chez  elle  fort  m^ritoire.  On  avoit 
connu  son  caract6re  avant  qu'elle  Mt  charg^e  du  gouverne- 
ment  de  cette  communaut^.    Ses  jednes  ^toient  I'efEet  de 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  109 

ranee  of  the  English  originals  makes  it  impossible 
to  judge  of  the  merits  of  the  translation.  It  is 
probable,  however,  that  these  tales  appeared  in 
some  periodical,  and  were  combined  by  Le  Tour- 
neur  into  one  collection.  Probably,  too,  in  accord- 
ance with  his  usual  method,  they  were  more  or 
less  adapted  and  condensed  to  suit  his  purpose. 
The  result  is  sufficiently  pleasing,  and  will  af- 
ford even  the  modern  reader  a  mildly  diverting 
hour. 

But  even  this  gentle  relaxation  of  the  short- 
story  did  not  long  detain  the  serious-minded  Le 
Tourneur.  The  same  year,  almost  as  if  to  make 
amends  for  his  momentary  lapse  into  a  lighter 
vein,  he  published  his  Vie  de  Savage  et  de 
Thomson^^  and  collaborated  in  a  translation  of 
Robertson's  History  of  Charles  V.     The  Vie  de 

son  avarice  et  sa  devotion  le  refuge  de  son  humeur  noire,  et 
m^lancolique.  D^penser  peu,  c'^toit  dans  ses  iddes  le  plus 
grand  bonheur  de  I'homme,  et  la  perfection  de  la  pi^t6  ;  elle 
mettoit  la  prodigality  au  nombre  des  sept  pdch^s  mortels  ; 
elle  pr^f^roit  un  cilice  k  une  robe  ^Idgante,  et  des  cendres 
aux  parfums,  par  la  raison  qu'elles  coutoient  moins  cher  ; 
toutes  les  fois  qu'on  brisoitun  vase,  c'^toit  un  jour  de  jeunes 
pour  la  communaut^. ' ' 

1  Histoire  de  Bichard  Savage  et  de  J.  Thomson^  traduites 
de  I'Anglois,  par  M.  Le  Tourneur,  Paris,  1771.  (approb. 
11  avril,  1771;  Privilege  14  d^ceinbre,  1770),  lu  et  approuv^ 
le  21  mai,  1769. 


110  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

Savage  et  de  Tliomson  contained,  by  way  of 
preface,  a  prose  translation  of  ChurchiU's  poem, 
The  Author.^  This  long  poem  in  ten-syllable 
rhyming  couplets,  which  describes,  with  occa- 
sional flashes  of  vigor,  the  degenerate  condition 
of  English  authors,  appears  here  in  an  abridged 
paraphrase,  shorn  of  most  of  its  contemporary 
allusions,  and  rendered  as  nearly  as  possible  a 
moral  essay   of  universal  application. ^     In  his 

1  Churchill,  Charles  (1731-1764),  author  of  the  Bosciad, 
1761 ;  Gotham,  1714 ;  The  Author,  1764 ;  The  Candidate, 
1764,  etc. 

2  Accurs'd  the  man,  whom  fate  ordains  in  spite, 
And  cruel  Parents  teach  to  Read  and  Write  ! 
What  need  of  Letters  ?     Wherefore  should  we  spell  ? 
Why  write  our  names  ?    A  mark  will  do  as  well. 
Much  are  the  precious  hours  of  youth  misspent, 

In  climbing  Learning's  rugged  steep  ascent ; 
When  to  the  top  the  bold  adventurer's  got, 
He  reigns,  vain  monarch  o'^er  a  barren  spot. 
While  in  the  vale  of  Ignorance  below. 
Folly  and  vice  to  rank  luxuriance  grow  ; 
Honours  and  wealth  pour  in  on  ev'ry  side, 
And  Proud  Preferment  rolls  her  golden  tide." 

—  Churchill,  Poems,  London,  1765,  Vol.  11. 

*'  Malheur  k  I'homme  h  qui  nos  parens  ont  appris  k  lire, 
et  que  le  destin  dans  sa  colore,  a  condamn^  k  ^crire  !  Que 
de  jours  perdus  k  se  frayer  p^niblement  la  route  de  la  sci- 
ence !  Et  que  gagne  un  ^fccrivain,  qui,  apr^s  mille  efforts, 
atteint  sa  cime  escarp^e  ?    Monarque,  ridiculement  vain,  il 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  111 

translation  of  Dr.  Johnson's  Life  of  Savage^ 
however,  Le  Tourneur  is  much  more  exact,  con- 
tenting himself  only  with  the  occasional  inter- 
position of  a  phrase  or  word,  apparently  for  the 
sake  of  enhancing  the  human  interest  of  the 
narrative. 

"  Savage,"  says  Johnson,  "  was  at  the  same 
time  so  touched  with  the  discovery  of  his  real 
mother,  that  it  was  his  frequent  practice  to 
walk  in  the  dark  evenings,  for  several  hours, 
before  her  door,  in  hopes  of  seeing  her  as 
she  might  come  by  accident  to  the  window 
or  cross  her  apartment  with  a  candle  in  her 
hand."i 

"  Savage  f ut  si  touche,"  relates  Le  Tourneur, 

"de  la  decouverte  de  sa  veritable  mere,  et  si 

sensible  a  sa  haine^  quHl  ne  pouvoit  renoncer  a 

Vespoir  de  la  Jlechir.     Pendant  longtems  il  se 

rendoit  tons  les  soirs  a  la  nuit  devant  sa  porte 

et  y  restoit  des  heures  entieres,  dans  I'esperance 

regne  sur  un  empire  imaginaire,  tandis  qu'au  dessous  de 
lui,  dans  les  vastes  champs  de  1' ignorance,  il  voit  le  vice  et 
la  folic  usurper  les  honneurs  et  Tor  rouler  k  grands  flots  vers 
les  demeures  de  la  sottise."  Here  speaks  the  translator  of 
Young,  and  here  are  two  careless  or  wilful  mistranslations  ; 
"vain  monarch"  is  inutile^  not  vain,  and  a  "  barren  spot" 
is  by  no  means  necessarily  imaginaire. 

1  The  English  Poets^  London,  1810,  Vol.  XI.  p.  246. 


112  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

que  le  hasard  pourroit  la  conduire  a  sa  fenetre, 
ou  ouHl  auroit  du  moins  la  satisfaction  de  la  voir 
traversant  ses  appartemens  un  flambeau  a  la 
main."     (p.  16.) 

It  is  not  difficult  to  see  here  the  probable 
working  of  Le  Tourneur's  mind.  The  inter- 
polated phrases  express  what  would  have  been 
his  own  feeling  under  similar  circumstances, 
and  probably  what  Savage  felt  and  Johnson 
neglected  to  state.  Why  not,  then,  add  what 
was  so  evidently  true?  Why  be  miserably 
exact,  when  an  added  touch  of  truth  will  in- 
crease the  interest?  With  the  same  laudable 
intention,  no  doubt,  he  inserts,  at  appropriate 
intervals,  translations  of  most  of  Savage's  short 
poems  mentioned  by  Johnson  in  the  course  of 
his  biography,  and  thus  Le  Tourneur's  version 
is  considerably  the  longer.  The  Vie  de  Thom- 
son is  an  abridged  translation  of  an  anonymous 
biography  prefixed  to  an  edition  of  Thomson's 
works  in  1763.^  It  received  the  least  notice 
of  the  three  pieces  which  compose  the  volume. 
Thomson  was  already  well  known  in  France,^ 

1  James  Thomson,  Works,  London,  1763,  2  vols. 

2  Les  Snisons,  po6me  traduit  de  I'Anglois  de  Thomson 
(Mme.  de  Bontems),  Paris,  1759,  in  8vo. 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  113 

and  this  slight  sketch  of  his  life  was  of  no  ap- 
preciable added  interest  or  value. ^ 

L'Auteur  and  the  Histoire  de  Savage  carried 
off  the  honors.  The  former,  "M.  Le  Tourneur 
a  traduit  avec  cette  vigueur  qu'il  a  repandue  dans 
sa  traduction  des  ouvrages  d'Young.  Ce  vo- 
lume fait  honneur,  au  Traducteur,  a  I'Auteur  et 
aux  h^ros  de  ces  histoires."^ 

This  same  year  of  1771  saw  yet  another  work 
by  Le  Tourneur,  the  fourth  which  had  come 
from  his  pen  within  the  twelve  months.^  The 
third  and  fourth  volumes  of  Suard's  translation 
of  Robertson's  History  of  Charles  V.  *  are  said  to 
have  been  intrusted  to  Le  Tourneur.^  He  ac- 
quitted himself  of  this  task  with  skill,  and  with 
a  greater  fidelity  to  the  text  than  he  had  shown 
hitherto. 

The  last  return  of  Le  Tourneur  to  the  more 
serious  and  somber  kind  of  literature  is  a  reli- 

1  For  Thomson  in  France,  see  Texte^  and  L^on  Morel, 
James  Thomson^  sa  Vie  et  ses  CEuvres,  Paris,  1895. 

2  Journal  Encyclopedique,  May,  1771. 

3  Hervey,  Choixde  Contes,  Histoire  de  Savage,  CharlesV. 
*  U Histoire  du  Bhjne  de  V Einpereur  Charles  Quint,  par 

M.  Robertson.  Ouvrage  traduit  de  I'Anglois.  Paris  et 
Amsterdam,  1771. 

6  Qu^rard,  La  France  Litteraire ;  Barbier,  Dictionnaire 
des  Ouvrages  Anonymes,  Paris,  1874. 


114  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

gious  pamphlet  which  echoes  the  philosophy  of 
Young,  but  breathes  a  new  note  of  scientific 
optimism.  Jenyns'^  Internal  Evidence  of  the 
Christian  Religion  was  published  in  1776,  and 
a  translation  had  already  appeared  in  France  ^ 
before  Le  Tourneur  undertook  to  render  it.^ 
Jenyns  develops  his  subject  with  clearness, 
logic,  and  simplicity,  and  in  his  cool,  impartial 
examination  of  facts  seems  to  foreshadow  the 
modern  "higher  criticism"  of  the  Bible.  His 
argument  is  that  of  Pascal :  that  an  examination 
of  the  Christian  religion  itself,  apart  from  any 
proofs  deduced  from  miracles  or  prophecies,  will 
show  conclusively  that  it  cannot  be  the  inven- 
tion of  human  wisdom  or  the  result  of  human 
fraud.  Such  an  examination  reveals  four  dis- 
tinct proofs  :  1.  The  evidence  of  the  New 
Testament  as  a  historical   document.     2.    The 

1  Jenyns,  Soame  (1704-1787),  author  of  Poems  (1752), 
Free  Enquiry  into  the  Nature  and  Origin  of  Evil  (1757), 
Disquisitions  on  Several  Subjects,  1782,  etc. 

2  Examen  de  Vevidence  intrinseq^ie  du  Christianisme 
traduit  de  VAnglois  sur  la  6«  edition  avec  des  notes  du 
traducteur,  Londres  et  Li6ge,  1778  in  8vo. 

^  Vue  de  V  Evidence  de  la  Beligion  Chretienne  considerie 
en  elle-meme,  Traduit  de  I'Anglois,  par  M.  Le  Tourneur, 
Paris,  1779,  167  pp.  (Approb.  4  d6o.  1778  ;  Privilege.  11 
f^vrier,  1779).    Note:  date  is  wrongly  printed  1769, 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  115 

statement  therein  of  a  new  and  unique  system 
of  religion.  3.  A  new  system  of  morality, 
which  by  its  very  character  4.  cannot  be  of 
human  invention.  The  existence  of  Christ  and 
of  the  New  Testament  are  historical  facts. 
The  Christian  doctrine  is  unique  in  consider- 
ing this  world  merely  a  preparation  for  the 
next;  in  the  conception  of  the  Trinity,  etc. 
Its  leader,  Christ,  was  of  a  character  so  extraor- 
dinary, and  inculcated  principles  so  at  vari- 
ance with  human  nature  and  inclination,  that 
by  their  very  divergence  from  the  range  of 
human  reason  and  conception,  we  are  forced 
to  believe  them  of  divine  origin.  The  pamphlet 
aroused  a  long  controversy  in  England,  but 
awakened  only  a  mild  interest  in  France,  which 
was  still  full  of  the  Shakespeare  war.  Le 
Tourneur's  translation,  which  very  well  pre- 
served the  logic,  clearness,  and  simplicity  of 
the  original,  reached  four  editions,  the  last  ap- 
pearing in  1803.1 

The  same  year  of  1779  Le  Tourneur  began 

1  De  rJ^vidence  de  la  Beligion  Chretienne,  ouvrage  traduit 
de  I'anglois  par  Le  Tourneur.  IV  Edition,  augmente'e  d'un 
Plan  de  F^nelon  et  de  Pens^es  sur  la  Providence,  Paris, 
an  XL 


116  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

his  second  work  of  collaboration,  the  Histoire 
Universelle^  a  gigantic  work  in  one  hundred  and 
twenty-six  volumes,  which  came  out  at  intervals 
during  the  next  ten  years. ^ 

His  most  serious  and  individual  work  in 
history,  however,  was  the  text  written  to  accom- 
pany a  series  of  pictures  illustrating  the  history 
of  England  and  published  by  David  in  1784.2 
The  work,  which  was  brought  out  in  an  Edition 
de  luxe,  limited  to  four  hundred  and  twenty-five 
copies,  on  fine  heavy  paper  and  in  sumptuous 
binding,  was  dedicated  to  Monsieur  in  a  joint 
letter  by  David  and  Le  Tourneur.  The  one 
hundred  and  fifty  engravings  were  copied  from 
masterpieces  of  painting  and  sculpture,  and  the 
text,  compiled  by  Le  Tourneur  from  various 
English  historians,  was  not  only  to  describe  the 
pictures,  but,  according  to  the  Prospectus,  would 

1  Histoire  Universelle,  depuis  le  commencement  du  monde 
jusqu'  k  present,  compos6e  en  anglois  par  une  soci6td  de 
gens  de  lettres :  traduction  nouvelle  (par  P.  Le  Tourneur, 
L.  d'Ursieux,  F.  G.  Goffaux  et  autres).  Paris,  1779-1789, 
126  vols,  in  8vo  (cited  by  Barbier,  Dictionnaire  des  Ouv- 
rages  Anonymes,  Paris,  1874,  Vol.  II.). 

2  Histoire  d'' Angleterre^  repr6sent6e  par  Figures,  accom- 
pagndes  d'un  Precis  Historique.  D6di6  et  prdsentd  k  Mon- 
sieur, Fr6re  du  Roi,  Paris  1784,  2  vols,  in  4to  (Privil.  12 
ddcembre,  1783). 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  117 

form  an  outline  history  of  England,  which  might 
be  read  with  interest  and  pleasure  quite  in- 
dependently of  the  engravings.  These  ranged 
from  the  time  of  the  Druids  down  to  the  reign 
of  George  II.,  and  represented  the  more  dra- 
matic moments  in  English  history,  such  as  the 
death  of  King  Arthur,  Canute  by  the  seashore, 
the  return  of  the  seals  to  Henry  II.  by  Thomas 
a  Becket,  etc.  The  moment  of  William  the 
Conqueror's  fall,  on  landing  for  the  first  time  in 
England,  forms  the  subject  of  one  of  the  en- 
gravings, and  the  accompanying  text  shows  very 
well  the   general  character  of  the  whole. ^     It 

1  Chute  de  Guillaume  en  1066 

.  "  Guillaume  sortant  de  sa  chaloupe  se  lance  et  tombe 
.  sur  le  sable.  Cette  chute  au  premier  pas  pouvoit  etre  mal 
.  interpret^e  par  une  multitude  dispos^e  k  tourner  tout  en 
.  presages.  II  le  sentit  h  I'instant,  et  eut  la  presence  d'es- 
.  prit  de  crier  en  se  relevant :  *  J'ai  pris  possession  de  cette 
.  terre.'  Un  soldat  court  aussitdt  k  la  cabane  voisine,  en 
.  arrache  une  poign^e  de  chaume  et  revient  I'offrir  au  G6- 
.  n^ral,  comme un  signe  d' investiture  du  Royaume.  Tousles 
soldats  d'applaudir :  la  joie  et  I'espoir  du  butin  remplissent 
leurs  cceurs.  lis  apprennent  la  victoire  r^cente  de  Harold 
et  n'en  sont  point  dmus  ;  lis  n'aspirent  qu'^  combattre  un 
ennemi  d^j^  vaincu  dans  leur  imagination.  Ainsi  tiennent 
souvent  aux  plus  values  minuties  les  plus  grands  6v6nements 
et  1' opinion  des  hommes  a  tort."     Vol,  I.  p.  97. 

(The  dots  were  put  in  to  indicate  that  part  of  the  text 
which  directly  describes  the  engraving.) 


118  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

seems  probable  that  the  heavy  quarto  volumes 
in  their  luxurious  binding  were  as  eagerly 
sought,  and  filled  the  same  place,  in  the  later 
eighteenth  century  as  the  modern  "gift  book" 
with  its  pictures  and  accompanying  descriptions 
of  foreign  lands. 

Scarcely  pausing  to  draw  breath  after  the 
great  labor  of  the  translation  of  Shakespeare,  Le 
Tourneur  turned  his  facile  pen  in  the  direction 
of  the  novel,  and  in  the  same  year  as  the  Histoire 
d'Angleterre  published  Le  Sylphe^  the  translation 
of  an  English  work.^  This  eighteenth-century 
novel  is  the  usual  popular  tale  of  the  marriage  of 
a  young  and  virtuous  country  girl,  Julie  Greville, 
to  a  libertine.  Sir  William  Stanley,  and  of  her 
trials  and  disillusionment  in  fashionable  London 
society.  The  story  is  told  in  letters  from  Sir 
William  to  his  friend  Lord  Bidulph  and  from 
Julie  to  her  sister  Louise,  who  remains  with  the 
father  at  their  home  in  the  valley  of  Woodley, 
near  Abergavenny  in  Wales.  Julie's  struggles 
to  be  true  to  her  husband  and  to  her  own  ideals 


1  Le  Sylphe^  traduit  de  I'Anglois,  Gen&ve  et  Paris,  1784. 
1  vol.  in  2  pts.,  600  pp.  (The  work  was  published  anony- 
mously, but  is  attributed  to  Le  Tourneur  by  Qu6rard  and 
Barbier.) 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  119 

of  virtue,  in  the  midst  of  the  corrupt  society  in 
which  she  is  placed,  and  in  face  of  the  bitter- 
ness of  disillusion,  are  rendered  more  difficult 
by  the  appearance  of  the  Baron  Tonhausen,  an 
upright  and  honorable  man,  who  becomes  her 
faithful  friend,  and  with  whom,  to  her  horror, 
she  presently  discovers  that  she  is  falling  in  love. 
Helpless  and  friendless,  she  is  in  despair,  but  is 
saved  at  this  critical  moment  by  the  interposition 
of  the  Sylph,  who  begins  with  her  a  secret  cor- 
respondence, warning  her  of  threatened  dangers, 
and  encouraging  her  to  constancy  and  to  virtue. 
This  unseen  friend  represents  himself  as  her 
Guardian  Angel,  who  unknown  to  her  sees  her 
daily,  loves  her  like  a  father,  and  reads  her  in- 
most soul.  Blindly  trusting  this  invisible  and 
mysterious  protector,  Julie  is  enabled,  by  his 
counsels,  to  escape  the  vile  machinations  of 
Bidulph  to  seduce  her,  and  of  Stanley  to  get 
possession  of  her  fortune,  and  at  the  death  of  her 
husband,  who  obligingly  blows  his  brains  out,  to 
return  pure  and  virtuous  to  her  country  home. 
Before  the  end  of  the  first  volume,  the  discern- 
ing reader  has  easily  guessed  that  the  Sylph 
and  the  Baron  Tonhausen  are  one  and  the 
same,  and  is  not   surprised  to   learn,  a   little 


120  PIERRE   LE  TOURNEUR 

later,  that  both  are  identical  with  Henry 
Woodley,  Julie's  youthful  lover  who  had  gone 
to  London  to  make  his  fortune  before  the  appear- 
ance of  Stanley  on  the  scene.  But  now  his 
difficulties  begin.  The  artful  Sylph  had  ex- 
tracted from  Julie  a  promise  never  to  engage 
her  affections  without  his  consent,  and,  faithful 
to  him,  and  to  the  Baron  Tonhausen  who  has 
strangely  and  mysteriously  disappeared,  and  to 
whose  memory  she  proposes  to  devote  what  re- 
mains of  her  shattered  life,  she  utterly  refuses  to 
listen  to  the  advances  of  the  constant  and  ador- 
ing Henry.  It  is  only  by  appearing  before  her 
in  his  threefold  character  that  he  is  at  length 
able  to  win  her  hand,  and  to  live  ever  after  in  the 
peace  and  prosperity  his  long-continued  devo- 
tion and  virtue  have  deserved. 

A  characteristic  touch  of  Le  Tourneur  is  the 
omission,  as  irrelevant,  of  the  story  of  Julie's 
father,  who  withdrew  from  the  world  to  live  in 
seclusion  in  the  country .^  Like  him,  too,  is  the 
explanation  in  a  footnote  of  two  quotations  from 
Shakespeare,  cited  by  Sir  William  in  his  first 

1  It  was  printed  in  Le  Jardin  Anglois,  1788,  Vol.  II.  pp. 
69-104,  under  the  title  "  Lettre  d'un  P6re  retird  h,  la  cam- 
pagne  k  sa  Fille  nouvellement  marine  et  ^tablie  k  Londres, 
qui  lui  avoit  demand^  la  cause  de  sa  retraite/' 


MINOR   TRANSLATIONS  121 

letter.  1  The  novel,  as  a  whole,  offers  nothing 
particularly  worthy  of  note  in  style  or  subject, 
although  the  rather  ingenious  plot  may  awaken 
a  mild  and  temporary  interest. ^  The  reader 
may  well  be  roused  to  envy  and  admiration, 
however,  by  the  description  of  a  beautiful  hair 
medallion  which  Julie  sent  to  the  Sylph  as  a 
pledge  of  her  confidence. 

"J'ai  envoy^  ce  matin  au  cafe  d'Anderton, 
le  plus  elegant  medaillon  en  cheveux  que  vous 
ayez  jamais  vu.  Le  medaillon  est  de  la  forme 
et  grandeur  du  bracelet  que  je  vous  ai  envoye ; 
le  sujet,  un  autel  sur  lequel  sont  inscrits  ces 
mots :  d  la  Reconnoissance  ;  une  figure  elegante 
de  femme  a  genoux,  presentant  son  offrande, 
et  un  petit  cherubin  aile,  qui  porte  I'encens 
vers  le  ciel ;  une  legere  tresse  de  cheveux  a  peu 

i"Un  matin  que  j'errois  sur  ces  montagnes  au  front 
casque  de  nuages.'*''  Note:  "expression  de  Shakespeare 
dans  la  Tempgte,  'cloud-capt,'  "  p.  5. 

"Je  fis  done  comme  la  Patience  sur  un  Tombeau." 
Note:  "autre  image  de  Shakespeare,"  p.  7. 

2  There  seems  to  be  a  reminiscence  of  the  Italian  cicisbeo 
in  the  following  passage  : 

"  Lord  Bidulphe  est  ce  que  Lady  Besfort  appelle  mon 
sigisbee :  c'est  k  dire  qu'il  se  charge  de  m'accompagner  en 
public,  de  faire  approcher  ma  chaise,  de  me  faire  passer 
des  rafraichissements,  etc.,  mais  je  vous  assure  que  tout  cela 
ne  le  rend  pas  plus  agr^able  a  mes  yeux.'* 


122  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

pres  de  la  largeur  d'un  petit  ruban  est  attachee 
a  chaque  c6te  du  medaillon  vers  le  haut  par 
trois  brillians  et  un  anneau  en  diamans,  par  ou 
Ton  peut  le  suspendre  h  un  ruban.  Je  vous 
assure  que  cela  est  extremement  joli." 

A  more  cheerful,  although  a  less  ingenious 
story,  is  the  Memoires  intSressans  par  une 
Lady^  which  was  published  the  year  of  Le 
Tourneur's  death,  in  1788.^  It  is  a  tale  of  the 
difficulties  besetting  the  course  of  true  love  in 
the  history  of  Louise  Seymour  and  the  young 
Lord  Henry  Hastings.  Their  fathers  had  been 
lifelong  friends,  they  themselves  childhood 
playmates,  and,  at  the  opening  of  the  story, 
they  live  at  adjacent  country  seats  in  England. 
Misfortunes  soon  come  to  trouble  their  dream  of 
happiness.  Louise's  father  dies,  her  fortune  is 
lost,  and  her  mother  becomes  a  hopeless  invalid. 
Louise  and  her  mother  start  for  France  to  spend 
a  winter  at  St.  Germain-en-Laye,  in  a  vain  hope 
to  restore  Mrs.  Seymour's  health.  At  Dover 
they  meet  Mrs.  Stanhope  and  her  son,  bent 
upon  a  similar  errand,  and  Stanhope  naturally 

1  Memoires  inter essans  par  une  Lady,  traduits  de  I'An- 
glols  par  feu  M.  Le  Tourneur,  Londres  et  Paris,  1788, 
2  vols,  environ,  400  pp. 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  123 

loses  no  time  in  falling  in  love  with  the  amiable 
Louise. 

In  the  meantime,  the  father  and  mother  of 
Lord  Hastings  plan  a  splendid  match  for  their 
son  with  the  rich  and  charming  Lady  Charlotte 
Villiers.  After  the  death  of  Mrs.  Seymour, 
which  occurs  the  following  year,  Louise  goes 
to  make  her  home  in  the  family  of  Lord  Hast- 
ings. She  meekly  accepts  her  fate,  makes 
friends  with  her  rival,  and  prepares  to  pine 
away,  faithful  to  her  love  for  Henry.  By 
means  of  a  letter  and  a  portrait  (his  own),  which 
he  surprises  Louise  one  day  in  the  act  of  kissing, 
Henry  is  led  to  believe  that  she  loves  another, 
and,  in  despair,  hastens  to  drown  his  grief  in 
foreign  travel.  Louise,  who  realizes  his  mis- 
take, is  too  proud  to  disabuse  him.  Henry  is 
summoned  home,  after  a  decent  interval,  by  the 
death  of  his  father,  and  one  day  shortly  after 
this  sad  event  he  is  begged  by  his  mother,  who 
notices  the  young  girl's  pallor  and  weakness,  to 
take  Louise  for  a  walk.  They  reach  a  bench 
in  the  garden  and  sit  down  to  rest.  Then  there 
is  a  long  and  embarrassing  silence,  which  is,  at 
length,  broken  by  the  arrival  of  the  climax  of 
the  story. 


124  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

"  Enfin  le  jeune  Lord,  levant  les  yeux  et  les 
fixant  sur  Louise  d'un  air  timide  etrespectueux: 
'  O,  Miss  Seymour,'  dit-il,  *  la  tranquillite  dont 
vous  paroissez  jouir  a  present  est-elle  une  preuve 
que  tous  les  obstacles  qui  s'opposoient  a  votre 
bonheur  sont  enfin  detruits  ?  et  pourrois-je 
esp^rer?''— Vol.  II.  p.  208. 

Louise  is  so  overcome  with  emotion  at  his  first 
words  that  she  faints  in  the  arms  of  her  lover. 
He  unfastens  her  mantle  to  give  her  air,  and,  in 
his  agitation,  pulls  out  his  portrait  which  she 
wore  around  her  neck.  Explanations  ensue,  and 
"la  conversation  qui  suivit  cette  interessante 
scene  fut  d^licieuse  pour  ces  heureux  amans." 

All  is  easily  and  happily  arranged;  Lady 
Charlotte  obligingly  becomes  engaged  to  Lord 
Lester,  and  Lord  Stanhope  who,  ever  since  he 
met  Louise  at  Dover,  has  been  hovering  uncer- 
tainly but  faithfully  in  the  background,  now 
mysteriously  disappears  altogether.  This  simple 
but  inartistic  method  of  disposing  of  obstacles 
grated  upon  the  critical  sense  of  Le  Tourneur, 
who  protested  vigorously  and  naively  in.  a  note 
at  the  end  of  the  translation. ^ 

1  Note  du  Traducteur:  "Je  suis  vraiment  fort  en  peine 
du  pauvre  Sir  Stanhope.    Apr6s  lui  avoir  fait  jouer  un  rOle 


MINOR   TRANSLATIONS  125 

The  story  is  told  partly  in  narrative,  partly 
by  letters.  There  are  pleasant  glimpses  of  St. 
Germain-en-Laye  and  of  St.  Cyr,  where  Louise 
spent  a  winter  as  pensionnaire,  and  the  French 
translation  reads  pleasantly  and  smoothly. 

Le  Tourneur's  greatest  achievement  in  the 
translation  of  novels  was  his  version  of  Clarissa 
Harlowe,  which  appeared  in  1785. ^  Unfortu- 
nately for  the  increase  of  his  fame,  he  cannot  be 
said  to  have  introduced  Richardson  to  Europe, 
nor  even  to  have  made  the  standard  translation 
of  Clarissa.  The  English  novelist  had  been 
already  well  known  in  France  for  upwards  of 
thirty  years.  As  early  as  1742  Pamela'^  was 
translated  by  the  Abbe  Prevost  and  his  version 

assez  int^ressant  comme  amant  aussi  g^ndreux  que  malheu- 
reux,  on  le  laisse,  on  ne  salt  comment  ni  ou.  Si  j'eusse 
suivi  mon  inclination,  je  lui  aurois  fait  un  beau  sort,  pour 
tranquilliser  les  lecteurs  sur  son  compte.  Pourquoi  ne  pas, 
au  moins,  le  faire  mourir  d'un  beau  d^sespoir  ?  Je  suis  per- 
suade que  cet  incident  n'auroit  pas  ^i6  le  moins  estim^  dans 
I'ouvrage,  ces  catastrophes  plaisent  beaucoup  k  nos  lecteurs 
de  romans  ;  et  plus  il  y  a  de  morts  tragiques  le  long  d'un 
roman,  plus  le  livre  a  d'int^rSt,  et  est  sur  de  faire  fortune." 

1  Clarisse  Harlowe,  traduction  nouvelle  et  seule  com- 
plete, par  M.  Le  Tourneur,  Paris  et  Geneve,  1785,  10 
vols,  in  8vo. 

2  Pamela,  ou,  la  Vertu  recompensee^  traduit  de  I'anglois, 
Londres,  1742, 


126  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

of  Clarissa  appeared  in  1751.1  Europe  had  gone 
wild  over  Clarissa  as  it  was  to  do  later  over 
Young  and  Ossian.  Richardson's  admirable 
pictures  of  manners,  his  seriousness,  his  pathos, 
and,  above  all,  his  morality  and  his  sentimental- 
ity, struck  at  once  a  responsive  chord  in  France. 
His  great  popularity  was  largely  instrumental 
in  preparing  the  way  for  the  revolution  in  taste 
which  made  possible  the  reception  and  success 
of  the  Nouvelle  Heloise^  and  the  appreciation  of 
sentimental  and  melancholy  literature. ^ 

Pre  vest's  translation,  however,  was  far  from 
complete  or  even  accurate.  He  announced 
boldly  in  the  preface,  "  par  le  droit  supreme  de 
tout  ecrivain  qui  cherche  a  plaire  dans  sa  langue 
naturelle,  j'ai  change  ou  supprime  ce  que  je  n'ai 
pas  juge  conforme  a  cette  vue."  For,  "depuis 
vingt  ans  que  la  litterature  Angloise  est  connue 
a  Paris,  on  sait  que  pour  s'y  faire  naturaliser, 
elle  a  souvent  besoin  de  ces  petites  reparations." 
Nevertheless,  "les  droits  d'un  traducteur  ne 
vont  pas  jusqu'a  transformer  la  substance  d'un 
Livre,   en  lui   pretant    un    nouveau   langage." 

1  Lettres  Angloises,  ou,  Histoire  de  Clarisse  Harlowe, 
traduit  de  I'anglois,  Paris,  1751,  4  vols,  in  12mo. 

2  For  an  account  of  Richardson  in  France,  see  Texte. 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  127 

This  is  Le  Tourneur's  own  method,  and  he 
might  have  found  here  a  justification  for  his 
treatment  of  Young.  Yet  the  work  of  Prevost, 
with  all  its  actual  mistakes,  its  omissions, 
inaccuracies,  and  changes,  preserved  enough  of 
Richardson's  essential  character  and  atmosphere 
to  take  Paris  by  storm  and  to  influence  pro- 
foundly the  development  of  the  French  novel. 
Still,  in  the  case  of  so  popular  and  valuable  a 
work  as  Clarissa  the  need  was  felt  of  a  more 
complete  and  faithful  translation,  and  this  need 
Le  Tourneur  undertook  to  fill. 

This  "  aimable  et  interessante  production  du 
genie,"  he  says  in  the  Prospectus^  has  never  been 
adequately  published  in  France,  in  regard  to 
type,  paper,  or  illustrations.  Accordingly,  his 
edition  is  a  handsome  one,  in  ten  large  octavo 
volumes,  printed  on  fine,  heavy  paper,  illustrated 
with  engravings  by  the  celebrated  Chodowieki, 
dedicated  to  Monsieur,  and  preceded  by  Diderot's 
famous  "  Eloge  de  Richardson."  In  his  preface, 
Le  Tourneur  is  keenly  appreciative  of  Prevost 
and  his  work.  But  he  is  aghast  at  the  size  and 
number  of  the  omissions  made  by  his  predecessor, 
which  would  suffice  alone  to  make  a  new  edition, 
and  among  which  there  are  scenes  and  passages 


128  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

of  such  power  that,  in  translating  them,  his  own 
pen  has  been  forced  to  pause,  "  noyee  dans  les 
larmes."  He  has  not,  therefore,  attempted  to 
revise  the  former  translation,  but  has  made  his 
own  directly  from  the  English  edition  which 
had  the  revision  of  Richardson  himself.  He 
fully  recognizes  the  faults  in  Prevost's  work, 
but  realizes,  too,  that  they  are  due  to  haste,  not 
to  lack  of  ability,^  and  he  adds  gracefully,  "  II 
a  bien  fait  d'epargner  le  temps  et  de  se  hater  de 
produire.'* 

Le  Tourneur's  translation  proved  to  be  all  that 
he  claimed  for  it :  a  thorough  and  careful  piece 
of  work,  published  in  a  dignified  and  handsome 
edition.  Throughout  the  whole  ten  volumes, 
he  painstakingly  enclosed  in  brackets  every 
word,  phrase,  line,  and  page  omitted  in  the  trans- 
lation of  his  predecessor,  so  that  the  now  enlight- 
ened public  was  able  to  realize  what  it  had  been 

1  " .  .  .  Ses  fautes,  comme  de  rendre  partout  le  mot 
friends  par  celui  dMmis  qui  est  bien  sa  signification  g^n^rale, 
mais  qui  signifie  aussi  parens.  (Le  fr^re,  et  la  soeur  Arabella 
^toient  bien  parens  de  Clarisse,  mais  ils  n'^toient  pas  sfire- 
ment  ses  amis).  .  .  .  Ces  fautes  ^chappoient  h  sa  plume 
616gante  et  facile,  mais  rapide  et  qui  couroit  vers  d'autres 
productions  originales  plus  flatteuses  pour  son  talent  et  sa 
reputation."     (Preface.) 


MINOR   TRANSLATIONS  129 

losing.^  Prevost's  omissions  were  many  and 
various,  consisting,  many  times,  of  a  coarse  word 
or  expression;  again,  of  a  whole  paragraph  or 
letter.  Among  his  more  important  concessions 
to  French  taste  were  the  omission  of  the  death 
of  Mrs.  Sinclair,  Leman's  letter  to  Lovelace,  the 
death  of  Belton,  the  episode  of  Clarissa's  coffin, 
the  description  of  her  funeral,  and  her  posthu- 
mous letters.  Le  Tourneur  inserted  all  these, 
together  with  "  I'Examen  de  quelques  objections 
faites  a  Tauteur  sur  la  catastrophe  et  differ- 
entes  parties  de  cette  histoire." 

Both  translators  quail   before  the   faults  of 

1  "  Mais  pour  revenir  k  ma  belle  coquette,  je  ne  pus  sup- 
porter que  la  premiere  femme  qui  m'avoit  donnd  des  chaines 
(chaines  de  soie  d'ailleurs  et  non  pas  des  chaines  de  fer 
comme  celles  que  je  porte  aujourd'hui)  m'eut  quitt^  pour 
un  petit  baronnet:  et  I'oiseau  une  fois  envois,  j'y  ai  attach^ 
plus  de  prix  que  je  n'y  en  avois  jamais  mis  quand  je  le  te- 
nois  en  cage  et  que  je  pouvois  en  disposer  k  mon  gr^."  — 
Letter  XXXI.  Lovelace  to  Bedford.  Le  Tourneur,  Vol.  I. 
p.  359. 

"Mais  pour  revenir  k  ma  Coquette,  je  n'avois  pu  ^^ sup- 
poser''''  que  la  premiere  femme  qui  m'avoit  donnd  des 
chaines  (chaines  de  soie  d^aiUenrsfortdifferentes  des  chaines 
de  fer  que  je  porte  aujourd'hui)  m'eut  jamais  quitt^  pour 
un  autre  homme:  etlorsque  je  m'^tois  vuabandonn^,  j'avois 
attach^  au  faux  bien  que  j'avois  perdu,  plus  de  prix  que  je 
ne  lui  avois  trouv^  dans  la  possession." — Provost,  Vol.  I. 
Part  IL  p.  35. 

K 


130  PIERRE   LE   TOURNEUR 

spelling  in  Joseph  Leman's  letter  and  in 
that  of  Will  Somers,  and  Le  Tourneur  declares 
that  "  Torthographe  est  grossierement  defec- 
tueuse  et  Timitation  seroit  choquante  et  illisible 
en  frangois." 

Le  Tourneur's  translation  is  a  better  piece  of 
work  than  that  of  Prevost ;  more  complete,  more 
exact,  more  rapid  in  movement,  more  concise  in 
expression.  Yet,  as  might  be  expected  from 
the  length  of  the  work,  and  the  character  of  the 
translator,  it  is  not  free  from  errors.  It  shows, 
in  places,  traces  of  haste,  actual  mistranslations, 
and  feeble  paraphrases.  Still,  in  preserving  the 
atmosphere  of  Richardson,  Le  Tourneur  is  not 
inferior  to  his  predecessor,  as  may  be  seen  from 
a  comparison  of  the  two,  in  Lovelace's  well- 
known  lament  in  Clarissa's  apartment  after  her 
escape  to  Hampstead.^ 

1 "  I  have  been  traversing  her  room,  meditating,  or  taking 
up  everything  she  but  touched  or  used  ;  the  glass  she  dressed 
at  I  was  ready  to  break  for  not  giving  me  the  personal  image 
it  was  wont  to  reflect  of  her  whose  idea  is  forever  present 
with  me.  I  call  for  her,  now,  in  the  tenderest,  now,  in  the 
most  reproachful  terms,  as  if  within  hearing ;  wanting  her, 
I  want  my  own  soul,  at  least  everything  dear  to  it.  What  a 
void  in  my  heart !  What  a  chillness  in  my  blood,  as  if  its 
circulation  was  arrested!  From  her  room  to  my  own,  in  the 
dining  room,  and  in  and  out  of  every  place  where  I  have 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  131 

"Je  viens  de  visiter  son    appartement,  livre 

a  mes  farouches  reflexions  et  prenant  neanmoins 

avee  transport  dans   mes  mains  tout  ce  qu'elle 

a  touche,  ou  ce  qu'elle  employoit  a  son  usage. 

J''a^  StS  pret  a  hriser  le  miroir  qui  lui  servoit  a 

s'habiller,  parce  qu'il  ne  m'a  pas  presents  I'image 

qu'il  a  regue  tant  de  fois,  et  qui  m'est  pour 

jamais   presente.      Je   I'appelle   par  son   nom, 

comme  si  elle  pouvoit  m'entendre:  tant6t  dans 

les  terms  les  plus  tendres,  tantSt  avec  les  plus 

vifs  reproches.      II   semble  que  depuis  qu'elle 

me    manque,   mon   ame,  ou   tout  ce   qui   etoit 

capable  de  me   plaire   dans  la  vie,  m'ait  aban- 

donne!     Quel  vide  dans  mon  coeur!  quel  froid 

dans  mes  veines!     La  circulation  de  mon  sang 

s'est  comme  arretde !     Je  retourne  sans  cesse  sur 

mes  pas,  de  ma  chambre  a  la  sienne,  je  vais, 

je  viens,   j'entre   dans  la  salle  a  manger,  dans 

tons  les  lieux  ou  je  me  rappelle  d'avoir  vu  la 

hien-aimSe   de   mon   coeur.       Mais   je   ne   peux 

ifrCarrHer  longtems  dans  aucun.     Son  aimable 

image  fond  eruellement  sur  mois  et  me  la  montre 

dans  quelque  attitude  vive  ou  je  crois  la  voir 

encore,  et  me  rappeler  nos  differens  entretiens.^''  — 

seen  the  beloved  of  my  heart  do  I  hurry,  in  none  can  I 
tarry  ;  her  lovely  image  in  every  one,  in  some  lively  attitude, 
rushing  cruelly  upon  me."  —  Ed.  Ballant,  Vol.  I.  p.  266. 


132  PIERRE  LE   TOURNEUR 

Lovelace   to   Belford,  June   8.     Le   Tourneur, 
Vol.  V.  p.  502. 

"Je  viens  de  visiter  son  appartement,  livr6 
k  mes  farouches  reflexions,  et  portant  neanmoins 
d  ma  houche,  tout  ce  qu'elle  a  touche,  ou  ce 
qu'elle  employoit  a  son  usage.  J'ai  brise  le 
miroir  qui  lui  servoit  a  s'habiller,  parce  qu'il 
ne  m'a  pas  represents  Timage,  qu'il  a  regue  tant 
de  fois  et  qui  m'est  pour  jamais  presente.  Je 
I'appelle  par  son  nom,  comme  si  elle  pouvoit 
m'entendre :  tant6t  dans  des  termes  passionnSs, 
tantot  avec  les  plus  vifs  reproches.  II  semble 
que  depuis  qu'elle  me  manque,  mon  ^me  ou 
tout  ce  qui  etoit  capable  de  me  plaire  dans  la 
vie  m'ait  cruellement  abandonne.  Quel  vide 
dans  mon  coeur!  Quel  froid  dans  mes  veines! 
La  circulation  de  mon  sang  s'est  comme  arretee  I 
Je  retourne  sans  cesse  sur  mes  pas,  de  ma 
chambre  a  la  sienne ;  j'entre  dans  la  salle  a 
manger.  Mes  regards  s'attachent  sur  tous  les 
lieux  ou  je  me  rappelle  d'avoir  vu  les  dSlices  de 
mon  coeur.  Mais  Us  ne  peuvent  ^y  fixer  long- 
terns.  Son  aimable  image  me  frappe  aussitdt 
dans  quelque  attitude  oil  je  crois  la  voir  encore, 
et  qui  fait  saigner  toutes  mes  plaies.^^  —  Prevost, 
Vol.  V.  p.  133. 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  133 

In  spite  of  its  superiority  and  completeness, 
the  translation  of  Le  Tourneur  failed  to  super- 
sede that  of  Prevost,  whose  shorter  version  was 
already  well  known  and  continued  to  be  read. 
It  was  frequently  reprinted,  while  that  of  Le 
Tourneur  had  only  reached  a  second  edition  in 
1802.  The  majority  of  readers  found  Richard- 
son's novel  long  enough  in  the  earlier  transla- 
tion and  were  glad  to  be  spared  the  coarse 
expressions,  bizarre  episodes,  and  many  repeti- 
tions which  had  disappeared  under  Prevost's 
chastening  pen.  The  AnnSe  Litteraire  ex- 
pressed the  general  opinion  in  a  long  editorial 
in  1786,  when  it  questioned  the  wisdom  of 
spending  time  and  talent  on  the  scrupulously 
accurate  translation  of  a  work  which  it  was  just 
as  well  to  know  in  an  abridged  form.^ 

1  "  On  ne  peut  qu'applaudir  h,  I'infatigable  activity  de 
M.  Le  Tourneur,  qui,  k  peine  d^lassd  de  sa  traduction 
de  Shakespeare  a  entrepris  et  ex^cut^  incessamment  celle 
de  Clarisse.  On  ne  I'accusera  point  de  se  consumer  sur  des 
^crivains  m^diocres  et  peu  dignes  de  ses  talens  et  du  public. 
Young,  Shakespeare  et  Richardson,  les  deux  derniers  sur- 
tout,  sont  peut-etre  les  plus  grands  g^nies  de  PAngleterre. 
On  peut  encore  moins  lui  faire  le  reproche  de  les  avoir  foible- 
ment  retraces  ;  les  Nuits  (V  Young  feront  ^  jamais  honneur 
^  sa  fid^lite  et  h.  son  Anergic:  un  peu  trop  cT exactitude  et 
d'' assujettissement  au  texte  et  au  genie  de  ShaJcespeare,  est 
le  seul  defaut  dont  on  pourroit  taxer  son  traducteur :  mais 


134  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

This  has  continued  to  be  the  modern  feeling 
in  France,  for  down  to  the  present  day  with 
one  exception  ^  no  other  complete  translation 
of  Clarissa  has  been  offered  to  the  public. 
Those  who  cared  to  know  Richardson  in  his 
entirety  went,  like  Diderot,  to  the  original 
English ;  those  who  did  not,  contented  them- 
selves with  the  translation  of   Prevost^  or  of 

outre  que  ce  d^faut  est  rachet^  d'ailleurs  par  mille  qualitds 
estimables,  il  paroit  que  cela  tient  k  un  principe  de  M.  Le 
Tourneur,  qui  se  pique  de  rendre  exactement  les  Auteurs 
Anglois,  tels  qu'ils  sont.  C'est  cette  m§me  raison  qui  I'a 
d^termin^  ^  donner  une  nouvelle  traduction,  une  traduction 
complete  d'un  ouvrage  dont  l'Abb6  Provost  avoit  jug6  ^ 
propos  d'^laguer  une  infinite  de  traits.  L'Abbd  Provost  a 
pu  avoir  raison.  M.  Le  Tourneur  pent  n' avoir  pas  tort. 
C'est  au  public  k  juger  entre  ces  deux  estimables  traducteurs  ; 
ou  ce  qui  vaut  encore  mieux  que  de  juger,  k  applaudir  k 
I'un  et  k  I'autre,  et  k  profiter  des  veilles  de  tous  deux : 
pour  nous,  nous  ne  pouvons  qu'exciter  M.  Le  Tourneur  k 
poursuivre  son  entreprise,  afin  de  passer  de  cette  traduction 
k  quelqu'autre.  Nous  aimons  tant  k  tenir  les  ouvrages  An- 
glois de  sa  main."  —  Annee  Litteraire,  1786,  Vol.  IL  p.  233. 

1  Clarisse  Harlowe^  traduction  nouvelle  et  seule  com- 
plete par  M.  Barr^,  Paris,  1845,  4  vols,  in  8vo. 

2  Provost's  translation  did  not  contain  the  name  of  Rich- 
ardson, and  it  is  possible  that  Alfred  de  Musset  had  read 
this  translation  instead  of  Le  Tourneur's,  and  was,  therefore, 
led  into  the  error  of  attributing  the  creation  of  Lovelace  to 
Robertson : 

"  Voil^  I'homme  d'un  si6cle,  et  I'^toile  polaire 
Sur  qui  les  ^coliers  fixent  leurs  yeux  ardeuts, 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  135 

Janin,    who     made    a    shortened     version    in 
1846.1 

Le  Tourneur's  "some  other"  translation, 
which  the  AnnSe  LittSraire  had  urged  him  to 
make,  was  of  an  entirely  different  character 
from  his  recent  work.  He  essayed  a  render- 
ing of  Italian  poetry.  The  Choix  d'Elegies 
de  VArioste  contains  twenty  elegies  and  a  dozen 
or  so  of  the  short  Latin  poems. ^  They  are  re- 
arranged and  renumbered  in  an  order  of  his  own 
choosing,  and  each,  furthermore,  receives  a  title 
indicating  its  subject.  A  few  stanzas  from 
Ariosto's  ninth  elegy  will  sufficiently  indicate 
Le  Tourneur's  power  as  an  interpreter  of 
Italian.  He  has  called  it  La  Fidelite,  and  it 
appears  as  number  five  in  his  collection. 

"  Qual  son,  qual  sempre  f  ui,  tal  esser  voglio, 
Alto,  o  basso  fortuna  che  mi  ruote, 
O  siami  Amor  benigno,  o  m'usi  orgoglio. 

L'homme  dont  Bohertson  fera  le  commentaire, 
Qui  donnera  sa  vie  h.  lire  h.  nos  enfants." 

—  Namouna,  Chant  11. 

1  Clarisse  Harlowe,  de  Samuel  Richardson,  par  Jules 
Janin,  Paris,  1846. 

2  Choix  d'J^legies  de  VArioste^  traduites  de  PItalien  par 
M.  Le  Tourneur,  Secretaire  ordinaire  de  Monsieur,  fr6re  du 
Roi,  et  Censeur  Royal,  Paris,  1785,  131  pp.  (Privil.  12  d6- 
cembre  1784.) 


136  PIERRE  LE   TOURNEUR 

"  lo  son  di  vera  f ede  immobil  cote 
Che'l  vento  indarno,  indarno  il  flusso  altemo 
Del  pelago  d'Amor  sempre  percuote. 

"Ne  giammai  per  bonaccia,  n^  per  Verno 
Di  Ik,  dove  il  destin  mi  fermo  prima, 
Luogo  mutai,  ni  muterb  in  eterno. 

"  Yedr6  prima  salir  verso  la  cima 
Dell'  alpi  i  fiumi,  e  s'  aprirk  il  diamante 
Con  legno,  o  piombo,  e  non  con  altra  lima. 

"  Che  possa  11  mio  destin  mover  le  piante, 
Se  non  per  gire  a  voi :  che  possa  ingrato 
Sdegno  d'Amor  rompermi  il  cor  constante."  * 

"Que  la  roue  de  la  fortune  m'eleve  ou  m'a- 
baisse,  que  I'amour  me  sourie  ou  me  dedaigne ; 
telle  que  je  fus,  telle  je  suis,  telle  je  veux  tou- 
jours  etre.  Constante  dans  ma  foi,  je  suis  I'im- 
muable  rocher  que  le  vent  et  le  flux  et  reflux  de 
la  mer  battent  sans  relache  et  toujours  en  vain. 
Fix^e  pour  toujours  ou  mes  destins  m'ont  arre- 
tee,  jamais  ni  les  douceurs  du  calme,  ni  les  fu- 
reurs  de  la  tempete  ne  pourront  m'en  deplacer. 
Je  verrai  les  fleuves  des  Alpes  remonter,  s'elan- 
cer  vers  leur  cime  et  la  lime  du  plomb  mordre 
sur  le  dur  diamant,  avant  que  le  sort  puisse  me 
forcer  h,  faire  un  pas  qui  ne  me  conduise  vers 

1  Ariosto,  Opere  Varies  Paris,  1776,  Vol.  III.  p.  95. 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  137 

toi,  avant  que  les  dedains  ingrats  de  I'amour 
brisent  la  Constance  de  mon  coeur  fidele."  ^ 

The  French  rendering  is  tolerably  correct 
and  correspondingly  colorless.  The  music  and 
the  harmony  of  the  Italian  lines  are  gone,  and 
only  the  skeleton  has  been  transferred,  leaving 
behind  the  grace  and  beauty  of  the  living  soul 
of  poetry.  It  is  possible  that  Le  Tourneur  was 
himself  conscious  of  the  almost  insuperable  dif- 
ficulties of  his  undertaking,  for  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  few  sonnets  and  "  Le  Cinque  Canti," 
published  in  Le  Jar  din  Anglois,  he  gave  up 
further  attempts  at  translating  Italian  poetry. 

For  the  three  remaining  years  of  his  life,  he 
devoted  himself  to  the  translation  of  works  of 
travel  and  adventure.  Two  of  these  were  ac- 
counts of  explorations,  one  in  the  northern,  the 
other  in  the  southern,  sea.  The  latter  is  the 
story  of  a  journey  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and 
a  voyage  in  the  Antarctic  Sea,  related  by  Andre 
Sparrman,  director  of  the  royal  cabinet  of  Nat- 
ural History   at   Stockholm. ^     Sparrman,  who, 

1  Choix  d^J^legies  de  VArioste,  p.  16,  Elegie  F,  La  Fide- 
lite. 

2  Voyage  au  Cap  de  Bonne  Esperance  et  autour  du  Monde 
avec  le  Capitaine  Cook,  par  Aiidr6  Sparrman.  Traduit 
par  M.  Le  Tourneur^  Paris,  1787,  3  vols,  in  8vo. 


138  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

by  his  interest  in  botany,  had  won  the  friend- 
ship of  Linnaeus,  had,  through  his  friend  and 
cousin,  Ekeburg,  obtained  the  nominal  position 
of  tutor  to  the  children  of  an  English  resident 
at  the  Cape.  This  gave  him  a  long-desired  op- 
portunity to  investigate  the  fauna  and  flora  of 
southern  Africa,  and,  later,  to  accompany  Cap- 
tain Cook,  and  Foster  the  naturalist,  in  a  voy- 
age around  the  world  and  in  the  Antarctic  Sea. 
His  journal  of  these  years  embodying  the  results 
of  his  investigations,  embellished  with  many 
plates  and  maps,  was  published,  first  in  Swedish, 
and  then  in  English  in  1785. ^  Le  Tourneur 
worked  from  the  English  translation,^  and  his 
rendering  suffers  from  apparent  haste  and  care- 
lessness. To  increase  the  size  of  the  French 
edition,  he  inserted  Smeatman's  treatise  on 
white  ants,  in  Vol.  II. ;  and  in  Vol.  III.  Middle- 
ton's  essay  on  the  Caffirs.  He  wrongly  states 
in  the  preface  that  Sparrman  died  in  1778,  and 
the  whole  translation  abounds  in  inaccuracies. 
A  single  amusing  example  will  show  him  at  his 
worst. 

1  A  Voyage  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  towards  the  Ant- 
arctic Polar  Circle  and  round  the  Worlds  from  1772-1776, 
by  Andrew  Sparrman.  Translated  from  the  Swedish  origi- 
nal.   London,  1785,  2  vols,  in  4.  *  Qu6rard. 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  139 

On  Sparrman's  first  journey  to  Falso  Bay  to 
meet  the  resident  whose  children  he  was  to 
tutor,  he  experienced  much  inconvenience  from 
his  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  Dutch  language. 

"  I  had  made  shift,"  he  says,  "  to  pick  up  a 
little  Grerman  in  my  journey  from  Gottenburg 
to  the  Cape,  but  this  was  of  very  little  service, 
either  towards  my  making  myself  understood 
in  this  place,  or  towards  my  understanding 
a  Dutchman  in  his  language."  —  Vol.  I.  p. 
14. 

"  Je  m^Stois  attaeJiS  avec  beaucoup  de  peine," 
says  Le  Tourneur,  *'^un  petit  Allemand  pendant 
mon  voyage  de  Gottenburg  au  Cap,  mais  il 
m'etoit  peu  utile,  soit  pour  faire  entendre  mes 
idees  aux  Hollandais,  soit  pour  m'expliquer  les 
leurs."     Vol.  I.  p.  9. 

In  spite  of  the  shortcomings  of  the  translation, 
the  work  was  well  received,  and  the  faithful 
AnnSe  Litteraire  had  still  only  words  of  praise 
for  its  favorite  translator.  ^ 

1  Tout  ce  voyage  est  on  ne  peut  plus  int^ressant  ...  la 
narration  de  I'Auteur  est  enjou^e,  son  style  agrdable,  et  n'a 
sans  doute  rien  perdu  en  passant  par  la  plume  de  M.  Le 
Tourneur  qui,  Traducteur  infatigable,  consacre  ses  veilles  ^ 
enrichir  notre  langue  des  bons  ouvrages  que  PAngleterre  a 
produits." — Anme  Litteraire^  August,  1787. 


140  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

Le  Tourneur  succeeded  better  with  his  selec- 
tions from  Thomas  Pennant's  Arctic  Zoology.^ 
The  Nord  du  Globe  ^  is  a  fairly  faithful  render- 
ing of  the  third  volume  of  Pennant's  work, 
although,  true  to  his  method,  Le  Tourneur 
changes  frequently  the  order  of  paragraphs,  and, 
in  one  or  two  cases,  relegates  some  of  the  less 
interesting  material  to  an  Appendix.  Pennant 
had  originally  intended  his  work  as  a  study  of 
the  zoology  of  North  America,  but,  "  when  the 
fatal  and  humiliating  hour  arrived,  which  de- 
prived Britain  of  power,  strength,  and  glory,  I 
felt  the  mortification  which  must  strike  every 
feeling  individual  at  losing  his  little  share  in 
the  boast  of  ruling  over  half  of  the  New  World. 

I  could  no  longer  support  my  claim  of  entitling 
myself  its  humble  Zoologist,  yet  unwilling  to 
fling  away  all  my  labors,  do  now  deliver  them 
to  the  Public  under  the  title  of  Arctic  Zoology,'''^ 
Accordingly,    Pennant  added  a  study   of  the 

1  Introduction  to  Arctic  Zoology  by  Thomas  Pennant, 
London,  1784,  1792,  3  vols,  in  4to. 

2  Le  Nord  du  Globe,  traduit  de  I'anglois  de  M.  Pennant, 
Paris,  1789,  2  vols,  in  Svo.     (Privil.  2  Janvier  1788,  approb. 

II  novembre  1788.)  Translation  attributed  to  Le  Tourneur 
by  Qu^rard,  Barbier,  Biog.  Univ. 

8  Preface  to  Vol.  I. 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  141 

fauna  and  flora  of  most  of  the  countries  of 
northern  Europe,  and  his  work  was  much  es- 
teemed, not  only  by  naturalists  for  its  accurate 
observations  and  descriptions  of  hitherto  un- 
known plants  and  animals,  but  by  the  general 
public  for  the  intrinsic  interest  of  the  subject 
and  the  easy  and  pleasant  style.  In  a  preface 
full  of  good  sense  and  keen  appreciation  of  the 
value  of  Pennant's  work,^  Le  Tourneur  makes 
an  interesting  digression  to  discuss  the  differ- 
ence in  meaning  in  French  and  English  of  the 
word  adventurer^  the  ignoble  significance  of 
which,  in  his  own  tongue,  he  considers  a  matter 
for  sincere  regret.  Travellers'  tales,  in  general, 
he  declares,  lack  literary  distinction,  because 
the  writers  are  usually  more  interested  in  action 
than  in  observation.  In  its  exception  to  this 
rule  lies  the  value  and  interest  of  the  Arctic 
Zoology ;  for  its  author  is  not  only  an  explorer 
and  a  naturalist,  but  a  writer  and  an  artist. 
"  Cette   description  est  riche,  savante,  animee, 

1  Thomas  Pennant  (1726-1798)  was  the  author  of  many- 
other  works  on  natural  history.  He  visited  Europe  in  1765, 
saw  Voltaire  at  Ferney,  and  was  the  guest  of  Buffon  at 
Montbard  in  Burgundy.  Buffon  is  said  (Cuvier  in  Biog. 
Univ.)  to  have  profited  by  Pennant's  History  of  Quadru- 
peds, 1781. 


142  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

et  presentee   de  maniere   a   satisfaire   le   gotlt 
autant  que  la  curiosite." 

The  first  two  volumes  of  the  Arctio  Zoology 
are  merely  manuals  of  natural  history,  consist- 
ing chiefly  of  plates,  with  accompanying  de- 
scriptions, so  that  the  third  volume  alone, 
which  Le  Tourneur  translated,  presents  ma- 
terial likely  to  be  of  interest  to  the  general 
public.  The  style  is  agreeable,  the  subject  un- 
usual and  interesting,  and  apart  from  Le 
Tourneur's  little  additions,^  which  give  a 
personal  touch  to  the  coldly  scientific  narra- 
tive, the  reader  of  the  French  translation  is 
faithfully  conducted  to  the  islands  of  Scotland, 
Iceland,  Spitzbergen,  Kamschatka,  and  North 
America,  and  may  gaze  with  Pennant's  keen, 
observant  eyes  upon  a  world  probably  but  little, 
if  at  all,  known  to  him.^ 

1  After  an  introduction  emphasizing  the  value  of  the 
study  of  physical  geography  and  natural  history,  Pennant 
begins,  "  Let  me  take  my  departure  northward  from  the 
narrow  straights  of  Dover."  Le  Tourneur,  to  avoid  the 
abrupt  transition,  renders,  '■'■Pleins  deces  viies^  aussi  grandes 
qu^utiles,  et  guides  par  le  flambeau  de  V obsei'vation  et  de 
V experience,  prenons  notre  route  vers  le  Nord,  en  partant  du 
tr6s  resserr^  d^troit  de  Douvres."  —  p.  5. 

2  An  idea  of  Pennant's  style  in  French  and  English  may 
be  seen  from  the  following  passages,  describing  a  cavern  in 
Scotland : 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  143 

Two  translations  of  German  works  occupied 
the  last  years  of  Le  Tourneur's  life:  Riesbeck's 

"The  cavern  called  the  Greylit-pot  almost  realizes  in 
form  a  fable  in  the  Persian  Tales.  The  hardy  adventurer 
may  make  a  long  subterranean  voyage  with  a  picturesque 
scenery  of  rock  above  and  on  every  side.  He  may  be  rowed 
in  this  solemn  scene  till  he  finds  himself  suddenly  restored 
to  the  sight  of  the  heavens ;  he  finds  himself  in  a  circular 
chasm  open  to  the  day,  with  a  narrow  bottom  and  extensive 
top,  widening  at  the  margin,  to  the  diameter  of  200  feet.  On 
attaining  the  summit,  he  finds  himself  at  a  distance  from  the 
sea,  amidst  cornfields  or  verdant  pastures,  with  a  fine  view 
of  the  country,  and  a  gentleman's  seat  near  to  the  place  from 
which  he  had  emerged.  Such  may  be  the  amusement  of  the 
curious  in  summer  calms  !  but  when  the  storms  are  directed 
from  the  east,  the  view  from  the  edge  of  this  hollow  is  tre- 
mendous, for  from  the  height  of  above  300  feet  they  may 
look  down  on  the  furious  waves,  whitened  with  foam,  and 
swelling  from  their  confined  passage." 

"  La  caverne  nommde  Greylit-pot  realise  dans  ses  formes 
la  fable  des  Contes  Persans.  Le  curieux  hardi  pent  y  faire 
un  long  voyage  souterrain,  ayant  k  ses  c6t^s  et  sur  sa  tete 
une  brillante  et  pittoresque  decoration  en  rochers.  II  peut 
s'y  conduire  en  bateau  k  rames,  errer  au  milieu  de  ces 
scenes  majestueuses  et  se  retrouver,  tout  k  coup,  rendu  k 
la  lumi^re  des  cieux.  II  se  voit  dans  un  espace  circulaire, 
d'une  etroite  entree  dont  le  sommet  ouvert  au  jour,  va 
s'61argissant  par  degr^s  jusqu'^  un  diam^tre  de  200  pieds. 
En  atteignant  le  sommet,  il  se  trouve  loin  de  la  mer,  au  mi- 
lieu de  champs  converts  de  pr^s,  de  verts  p^turages,  avec  la 
vue  d'un  beau  pays,  et  la  maison  voisine  d'un  honngte  habi- 
tant. Tel  est  le  plaisir  dont  peut  jouir  un  curieux  dans  lea 
calmes  de  I'^t^,  mais  quand  les  orages  viennent  de  la  partie 
de  Test,  la  vue,  plongeant  du  bord  de  ce  trou,  de  la  hauteur 


144  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

Letters  on  G-ermany  ^  and  the  Memoirs  of  the 
Baron  de  Trench,  The  first  is,  as  in  the  case 
of  Sparrman,  a  translation  of  an  English  transla- 
tion, which  appeared  in  1787,^  the  original 
German  having  been  published  in  1783. ^  Ries- 
beck's  German  Letters,*  written  under  the  dis- 
guise of  a  Frenchman,  were  immensely  popular 
in  their  day  and  are  still  worth  reading  for  their 
interesting  descriptions  of  manners  and  customs, 
for  their  keen  observation,  and  for  the  fire 
and  independence  of  the  author  which  they 
reveal,  and  which  atone,  in  large  measure,  for 

d'environ  300  pieds,  vous  fait  frissonner  en  vous  montrant 
au  fond,  les  vagues  furieuses,  toutes  blanchissantes  d'^cume, 
et  s'irritant  centre  le  passage  qui  les  resserre."  — p.  42. 

1  Voyage  en  Allemagne^  dans  une  suite  de  lettres,  par  M. 
le  Baron  de  Riesbeck,  traduites  de  I'Anglois,  Paris,  1787,  3 
vols,  in  8vo. 

This  French  translation  is  wrongly  given  by  Qudrard  as 
a  version  of  Collini's  Lettres  sur  les  Allemands.  This  work, 
however,  was  not  published  till  1790  and  the  letters  date 
from  1786.  Riesbeck's  work  appeared  in  German  in  1783, 
and  his  letters  began  in  1780.  Furthermore,  Collini  recom- 
mends Riesbeck  to  his  friend  as  a  useful  book  on  Germany. 
—  (Letter  VI.  p.  34.) 

2  Travels  in  Germany^  in  a  Series  of  Letters,  translated 
by  Paul  Henry  Maty,  London,  1787,  3  vols,  in  8vo. 

*  Briefe  einer  reisenden  Franzosen  uber  Deutschland.,  an 
seinen  Briider  an  Paris,  Zurich,  1783,  2  vols,  in  8vo. 

*  Gaspar  Riesbeck  (1706-1786),  writer  and  traveller. 
Author  of  Briefe  uber  das  Monchsweseny  Geschichte  der 
Deutschen,  etc. 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  145 

the  injustice  and  inaccuracy  of  some  of  the 
statements.^  In  his  journey  from  German  to 
English  and  from  English  to  French,  Riesbeck, 
although  an  enthusiastic  traveller,  comes  out 
somewhat  enfeebled,  shorn  of  many  of  his  graces, 
and  with  less  fire  than  he  began  his  career. 
But  although  more  serious  and  staid  in  French, 
he  is  still  an  agreeable  companion  with  whom 
to  spend  an  hour,  and,  even  in  a  foreign  tongue, 
is  able  to  jest  at  the  expense  of  the  learned  men 
of  Vienna. 2 

"  Vienne  fourmille  de  gens  de  lettres.  Si  un 
homme  vous  accoste,  et  que  vous  ne  le  reconnois- 
siez  pas  a  ses  mains  sales  pour  un  peintre,  un 
forgeron  ou  un  cordonnier,  a  sa  livree  pour  un 

1  E.g.  concerning  the  Prussian  government  and  the  finan- 
cial system  of  England, 

2  There  had  been  two  other  French  translations  previous 
to  that  of  Le  Tourneur  : 

a.  Lettres  d'un  Voyageur  frangois  (le  baron  de  B.)  sur 
V Allemagne,  enrichies  de  notes  et  de  corrections  par  Ber- 
tholde  Fr^d^ric  Haller,  patricien  de  Berne.  (Hollande) 
1785,  in  12mo. 

b.  Lettres  sur  V Allemagne.,  Vienne,  1787,  in  12mo.  Cited 
by  Barbier,  with  the  following  note :  "  Traduction  anonyme 
et  en  mauvais  fran^ois  mais  sans  retranchements,  des  vingt- 
cinq  premieres  lettres  de  Pouvrage  remarquable  public  par  le 
Baron  G.  de  Riesbeck  sous  le  titre  de  Briefe  einer  reisenden 
Franzosen,''^  1783,  2  vols,  in  8vo. 

L 


146  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

laquais  ou  a  ses  beaux  habits  pour  un  homme  de 
consequence,  vous  pouvez  etre  assure  que  vous 
voyez  un  homme  de  lettres  ou  un  tailleur,  car  a 
Vienne,  je  n'ai  pas  encore  appris  a  distinguer 
run  de  I'autre."  i— Vol.  I.  p.  285. 

The  translation  of  the  life  of  the  brilliant  and 
unfortunate  Baron  de  Trenck^  was,  however, 
made  directly  from  the  German  original.^  As 
in  the  case  of  Clarissa  Harlowe^  the  work  of  Le 
Tourneur  claimed  to  be  a  complete  translation, 
supplementing  an  abridged  version  by  the  Baron 
de  Bock  which  had  appeared  the  year  before.* 

1  In  the  absence  of  access  to  the  English  translation,  the 
original  German  may  serve  as  a  basis  of  comparison  : 

"  Hier  wimmelt  es  von  Gelehrten.  Wenn  dir  einer  begeg- 
net  denn  du  nicht  an  seinen  schmiitzigen  Handen  ansehen 
kannst,  dass  er  ein  Farbe,  Schmied,  oder  Schumacher,  oder 
an  der  Uniforram  dass  er  ein  Laquay,  oder  am  vielen  Gold 
auf  den  Kleideru  dass  er  ein  grossen  Herr  ist,  so  kannst  du 
sicher  sehen,  du  hast  einen  Gelehrten  oder  einen  Schneider 
vor  dir,  denn  beide  Menchenklassen  hab  ich  hier  noch  nicht 
recht  unterschneiden  gelernt."  —  Brief e  einer  reisenden 
Franzosen^  Vol.  I.  p.  344. 

2  La  Vie  de  Frederic^  baron  de  Trenck,  traduite  de  I'Al- 
lemand  par  M.  Le  Tourneur,  Berlin,  Taris,  1788,  3  vols, 
in  8vo. 

8  Frederic,  baron  de  Trench :  MerkwUrdige  Lebensge- 
schichte,  Berlin,  1787,  3  vols,  in  8vo. 

*  Vie  de  Frederic,  baron  de  Trenck,  ^crite  par  lui-m§me 
and  traduite  de  TAllemand  en  fran5ais  par  M.  le  Baron  de 
B,  .  .  .  (Bock),Metz,  1787. 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  147 

The  thrilling  story  of  the  adventures  and  im- 
prisonment of  this  German  Cellini  created  a 
great  sensation  in  Paris.  Trenck's  ^  name  was 
on  every  one's  lips.  A  wax  figure  of  him  in 
prison  costume  and  loaded  with  chains  was  ex- 
hibited in  the  Palais  Royal,  and  a  play  in  which  he 
figured  as  the  hero  was  presented  at  the  theatre 
d'Audinot.2  But  in  spite  of  the  popularity  of 
the  work,  the  public,  always  impatient  of  any 
tendency  to  prolixity  or  repetition,  was  as  well 
satisfied  with  the  abridged  as  with  the  complete 
translation,  and  doubted  the  wisdom  of  Le 
Tourneur  in  attempting  to  give  an  entire  and 
complete  rendering.  "  It  is  often  better  not  to 
be  too  faithful  in  a  translation,"  remarked  the 
AnnSe  Litteraire^  "  and  even  now,  many  people 
prefer  Prdvost's  version  of  Clai-issa  Harlowe  to 

1  Frdd^ric,  baron  de  Trenck  (1726-1794),  in  the  service  of 
Frederic  II.  of  Prussia,  brought  upon  himself  that  monarch's 
displeasure  by  his  intrigue  with  the  Princess  Amdie.  Im- 
prisoned for  eleven  years,  first  in  the  fortress  of  Glatz,  then 
in  Magdebourg,  he  served,  after  his  liberation,  Elizabeth  of 
Russia  and  Maria  Theresa  of  Austria.  Retired  to  Aix-les- 
Bains,  he  passed  the  last  years  of  his  life  in  commerce,  liter- 
ary pursuits,  and  travel.  Wrongly  accused  of  being  party 
to  a  conspiracy  in  1794  he  was  guillotined  July  25,  the  same 
day  as  Andr6  Ch^nier. 

2  Le  Baron  de  Trenck^  ou  leprisonnier  prussien,  Arnoult, 
Paris,  1788. 


148  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

the  fuller  and  more  complete  translation  of  Le 
Tourneur."! 

Le  Tourneur's  knowledge  of  German  was 
sufficient  to  keep  him  from  serious  errors  in 
translation,  and,  as  usual,  he  is  faithful  in  the 
essential  points,  inexact  and  inaccurate  in  de- 
tail of  word  and  phrase.  His  rendering  is  very- 
readable,  and  he  has  well  seized  Trenck's 
graphic  phrasing,  while  his  native  sense  of  logic 
and  clearness  preserves  the  directness,  and 
sometimes  refines  the  occasional  exuberance 
and  haphazard  style  of  the  impetuous  German. 
Although  claiming  to  present  an  absolutely 
complete  translation,  Le  Tourneur  nevertheless 
omits  a  few  passages,  either  because  of  their 
irreligious  spirit,  or  because  of  their  derogatory- 
attitude  towards  the  French.^ 

1  Annee  Litteraire,  1788,  Vol.  IV.  p.  227. 

2  An  example  of  the  kind  of  passage  which  offended  the 
sensitive  Le  Tourneur  is  the  following  (the  omitted  portion  is 
in  brackets) : 

"  Ich  fand  tausend  grtinde  die  mich  tiberzeugten,  das  es 
nummerro  Zeit  sei,  meinem  Leiden  ein  Ende  zu  machen. 
[Und  da  mich,  wie  gesagt,  niemand  gefragt  hatte,  ob  ich  in 
die  Welt  kommen  und  gebohren  sein  wolte,  so  glaubte  ich 
auch,  wolkommen  berechtigt  zusein,  gleichfallsohne  jemand 
zu  fragen,  dieselbe  zu  verlassen,  so  bald  mein  Hiersein 
unertraglich  wurde]."  — Vol.  II.  p.  30. 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  149 

Trenck's  indomitable  spirit  and  sense  of 
humor  enabled  him  to  keep  up  his  hope  and 
courage  even  under  the  most  severe  imprison- 
ment. Caught  in  an  attempt  to  escape  from 
Magdebourg,  brought  back  ignominiously,  fet- 
tered with  still  heavier  chains,  he  was  submitted 
to  a  rough  and  searching  cross-questioning  as 
to  where  he  had  obtained  his  tools.  Just  as 
the  guards  and  officers  were  leaving  the  dun- 
geon after  having  vainly  examined  every  corner, 
Trenck  spoke,  and  his  reply  is  characteristic 
both  of  the  man  and  of  his  style  : 

"  Messieurs,  le  diable  est  mon  meilleur  ami,  il 
m'apporte  tout  ce  dont  j'ai  besoin.  Nous  pas- 
sons  des  nuits  a  jouer  au  piquet  ensemble,  et  il 
me  fournit  de  chandelle.  Gardez-raoi  comme 
vous  voudrez,  il  saura  bien  me  sauver  de  votre 
pouvoir. 

"  lis  etoient  tout  stupefaits,  et  cependant  les 
autres  rioient ;  enfin  quand  ils  eurent  tout  exa- 
mine avec  la  plus  grande  exactitude,  et  qu'ils 
eurent  ferme  la  porte,  je  m'ecriai,  'Messieurs, 
revenez,  vous  avez  oublie  quelque  chose  d'impor- 
tant.' 

"  En  meme  tems  je  tirai  une  des  limes  que 
j'avois  cachees,  et  quand  ils  rentrerent,  je  leur 


150  PIERRE  LE  TOURl^UR 

dis :  '  J'ai  voulu  seulement  vous  prouver  que  le 
diable  m'apporte  tout  ce  dont  j'ai  besoin.'  On 
visita  de  nouveau  et  on  referma.  Les  quatre 
serrures  n'etoient  pas  encore  fermees,  que  j'avois 
deja  retire  un  couteau  et  dix  louis  d'or."  —  Vol. 
II.  p.  140. 

"Meine  Herren,  der  Teufel  i'st  mein  bester 
Freund,  er  bringt  mir  alles  was  ich  brauche. 
Wir  spielen  auch  ganze  Nachte  Picket  mit 
einander,  und  er  bringt  mir  auch  Licht.  Sie 
mogen  mich  bewachen  wie  sie  wollen,  so  wird 
er  mich  doch  aus  ihrer  Gewalt  erretten. 

"  Sie  erstaunten  ;  die  andern  lachten.  End- 
lich  da  sie  alles  auf  das  genaueste  durchgesucht 
und  die  letze  Thiire  zugeschlossen  batten,  rief 
ich :  '  Meine  Herren  I  kehren  zie  zuriick !  Sie 
haben  etwas  Wichtiges  vergessen  ! ' 

'^Indessen  zog  ich  eine  versteckte  Feile  aus 
dem  Boden  heraus,  und  sagte  bei  ihrem  Ein- 
tritte,  '  Ich  habe  Ihnen  nur  beweisen  wollen, 
das  der  Teufel  mir  alles  bringt,  was  ich  bedarf.* 
Man  visitirte  wieder  —  und  schloss  zu.  Unter- 
dess  das  man  an  vier  Schlossern  arbeitete,  hatte 
ich  ein  Messer,und  10  Louis  d'or  hervorgesucht, 
well   ich  mein  Geld  an  vei'schiedenen  Oerten 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  151 

versteckt   hatte.      Das   meiste   lag   unter   dem 
Boden."— Vol.  II.  p.  95.) 

Le  Jardin  Anglais,^  one  of  the  three  posthu- 
mous works  2  of  Le  Tourneur,  stands  on  the 
border  line  between  his  translations  and  his 
original  composition.  The  two  volumes  which 
compose  the  "  garden  "  contain  a  large  number 
of  short  selections,  some  of  which  are  transla- 
tions, and  some,  original  sketches.  In  this  col- 
lection are  reprinted  in  complete  or  abridged 
form  several  of  his  previously  published  works. ^ 
The  hitherto  unpublished  translations  and 
sketches  include  such  varied  subjects  as  an  essay- 
on  Shenstone,  a  sketch  of  the  history  of  balloon- 
ing, the  description  of  two  famous  criminals, 
reflections  upon  capital  punishment,  and  the 
account  of  a  trip  to  Normandy.  The  most  note- 
worthy translations  are  those  of  four  episodes 

1  Le  Jardin  Anglois,  ou  Varidt^s  tant  originales  que  tra 
duites  par  feu  M.  Le  Tourneur.  Londres  et  Paris,  1788, 
2  vols,  in  Bvo. 

2  Memoirs  Inter essans,  par  Une  Lady,  1788  ;  Le  Jardin 
Anglois,  1788  ;  Le  Nord  du  Globe,  1789. 

8  Such  are  :  Discours  Moraux,  Eloge  de  Clairaut  et  de  du 
Muy,  La  Jeune  Fille  seduite,  one  of  the  Lettres  Angloises, 
a  poem  of  Ossian  (  Cathuelina) ,  an  episode  omitted  from  Le 
Sylphe,  several  of  Ariosto's  elegies,  and  an  extract  from  Le 
Nord  du  Globe. 


152  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

from  Thomson's  Seasons,  a  few  extracts  from 
the  first  and  third  cantos  of  Paradise  Lost,  half 
a  dozen  of  Shakespeare's  sonnets,  and  seven 
satires,  and  the  Cinque  Canti  of  Ariosto. 

The  work,  as  a  whole,  offers  nothing  remark- 
able either  in  intrinsic  interest  or  in  literary 
value.  A  compilation  of  a  heterogeneous  mass 
of  material,  it  is  one  of  those  collections  due  to 
the  zeal  of  friends  who  wish  to  publish  every- 
thing that  ever  came  from  their  author's  pen. 
In  this  case,  such  often  misdirected  effort  was 
without  effect.  Le  Tourneur's  Le  Jardin 
Anglois  has  quietly  gone  the  way  of  most  of  his 
other  works  and  is  now  of  value  chiefly  for  the 
sake  of  the  biographical  sketch  which  serves  as 
preface. 

Of  the  dozen  translations  which  occupied  the 
later  years  of  Le  Tourneur's  life,  Clarissa  Har- 
lowe  is  the  most  important  and  the  best  known. 
A  few  of  the  others,  notably  The  Sylph,  the 
Life  of  Trench,  and  the  Letters  of  Riesheck,  are 
still  worth  reading.  The  rest,  except  for  their 
interest  in  the  study  of  literary  development, 
hardly  deserve  a  different  fate  from  the  ob- 
livion into  which  they  have  fallen.  Never- 
theless,  at  the   time  of  their  production,  they 


MINOR  TRANSLATIONS  153 

served  their  purpose  well,  of  increasing  lit- 
erary cosmopolitanism  in  France;  and  viewed 
in  this  light,  these  minor  translations  of  Le 
Tourneur  have  an  appreciable  interest  and 
value. 


V.     THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKE- 
SPEARE 

The  conservatism  of  French  taste  and  the 
slow  growth  of  literary  cosmopolitanism  in 
France  are  nowhere  more  clearly  shown  than  in 
the  appreciation  of  Shakespeare.  For  over  a 
hundred  years  after  his  death,  the  English  poet 
was  almost  unknown  in  France,  and  a  hundred 
and  sixty  passed  before  the  appearance  of  a 
complete  translation  of  his  works.  Le  Tour- 
neur's  translation,  the  first  volumes  of  which 
appeared  in  1776,  occupies  a  unique  position, 
not  only  by  reason  of  the  curious  literary 
warfare  which  it  excited,  but  also  because  it 
marked  the  beginning  of  a  new  and  distinct 
epoch  in  the  development  of  dramatic  taste.  A 
brief  consideration  of  the  appreciation  of  Shake- 
speare previous  to  the  appearance  of  this  work 
will  indicate  the  importance  of  the  part  played 
by  Le  Tourneur  in  the  literary  revolution  which 
164 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE       155 

took  place  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. 

In  France,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  Eng- 
lish was  as  little  known  and  studied  as  Chinese  is 
to-day.  The  knowledge  of  English  literature  was 
confined  to  a  few  travellers  and  playwrights, 
and  these  were  men  like  St.  Evremond  and 
La  Fosse,  who  had  lived  in  England  and  had 
become  acquainted  with  its  drama  as  much  by 
accident  as  by  design.  Throughout  the  entire 
hundred  years,  only  a  few  scattered  references 
to  Shakespeare  are  to  be  found,  slight  and  un- 
important notices  of  him,  destined  to  be  forgotten 
as  soon  as  made.  Yet,  significantly  enough, 
his  works  formed  a  part  of  the  libraries  of  two 
of  the  most  eminent  men  of  whom  the  century 
could  boast :  the  king,  Louis  XIV.  and  his  great 
minister,  Fouquet.^  The  word  of  comment  by 
Nicholas  Clement,  the  royal  librarian,  in  his 
catalogue  of  books  which  was  finished  in  1684, 
represents,  not  only  the  first  written  appreciation 
of  Shakespeare  in  France,  but  expresses,  in  its 

1  For  a  detailed  account  of  Shakespeare  in  France,  see 
Shakespeare  in  France  under  the  Old  Begime,  by  J.  J. 
Jusserand,  London,  1899,  and  Ulnfluence  de  Shakespeare 
sur  le  Thed,tre  Franqais,  par  Albert  Lacroix,  Bruxelles, 
1856. 


156  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

essence,  the  general  feeling  about  him  which 
was  to  persist  until  well  into  the  nineteenth 
century. 

"  Ce  poete  anglois  a  Timagination  assez  belle, 
il  pense  naturellement,  ils'exprime  avec  finesse; 
mais  ces  belles  qualites  sont  obscurcies  par  les 
ordures  qu'il  mele  dans  ses  comedies."^ 

But  with  the  opening  of  the  new  century,  the 
wave  of  cosmopolitanism,  of  interest  in  England 
and  English  literature,  which  was  a  little  later 
to  sweep  over  France  with  irresistible  force,  began 
to  make  itself  felt.  The  study  of  English  be- 
came more  common.  Numerous  translations 
appeared,  and  French  versions  of  Milton,  Pope, 
Swift,  Addison,  and  Defoe  aroused  interest  in 
foreign  literature,  stimulated  curiosity,  and  pro- 
voked criticism.  Guide-books,  essays,  descrip- 
tions of  England  multiplied,  and  a  trip  across 
the  Channel  became  part  of  a  liberal  education. 

It  was  Destouches  who  made  the  first  attempt 
to  translate  Shakespeare  into  French.  He  went 
to  London  in  1717  and  spent  six  years  in  Eng- 
land. There  he  made  a  study  of  the  English 
drama.     He  saw  the  Tempest^  and   was  so  im- 

1  Cited  by  Jusserand,  Shakespeare  in  France,  London, 
1899,  p.  171. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE       157 

pressed  by  its  strangeness  and  beauty  that  he 
rendered  several  scenes  from  it  into  French 
verse.  In  his  own  plays,  notably  Le  Dissipateur  ^ 
(1738),  he  showed  traces  of  the  influence  of  the 
English  stage,  and  in  the  dedicatory  letter  which 
preceded  his  translations  from  the  Tempest  he 
spoke  boldly  and  appreciatively  of  Shakespeare's 
method  and  the  freedom  of  the  English  drama. ^ 
Curiously  enough,  he  seemed  to  be  content  with 
these  fragments,  for  he  made  no  further  trans- 

1  An  echo  of  Timon  of  Athens  in  the  conception  of  certain 
scenes  and  in  its  mingling  of  comic  and  serious. 

2  "Ces  scenes  si  int^ressantes,  si  naives  et  d'un  gofit  si 
singulier  et  si  touchant,  sont  extraites  d'une  comddie  in- 
titul^e,  La  Tempete,  pi^ce  toujours  tr6s  suivie  en  Angleterre 
quoiqu'il  s'en  faille  infiniment  qu'elle  soit  r^guli^re ;  mais 
en  ce  pays-1^  I'irr^gularitd  n'est  qu'une  perfection. 

"L'argument  tient  fort  du  merveilleux  et  encore  plus  du 
bizarre.  C'est  d'une  magie  perp^tuelle.  Et  quels  incidents 
ne  peut-on  pas  amener  par  la  force  de  la  magie  !  Que  nous 
serious  heureux  en  ce  pays-ci,  nous  autres  auteurs  comiques, 
si  on  vouloit  nous  permettre  de  nous  servir  d'un  art  si 
commode  1  que  de  belles  choses  ne  ferions  nous  point  ?  .  .  . 
Mais  d6s  que  nous  voulons  prendre  notre  imagination  pour 
module,  on  nous  siffle  impitoyablement  et  franchement,  cela 
est  fort  incommode  et  fort  malhonnete.  Mais  c'est  le  gout 
de  la  nation.  Jugez  comment  elle  auroit  re5u  la  pi6ce  dont 
voici  le  sujet!"  —  (Euvres,  Paris,  1822,  Tome  V.  p.  498 
(Scenes  angloises). 

The  translation  of  Destouches  was  made  from  the  Tem- 
pest of  Dryden  and  Davenant. 


168  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

lations  or  other  attempts  to  make  his  discovery 
of  Shakespeare  more  generally  known. 

Destouches's  criticism  is  significant,  for  he 
represents  one  of  the  first  of  the  eighteenth-cen- 
tury school  of  reaction  against  the  canons  of 
the  French  classic  drama.  About  the  same  time 
Houdard  de  la  Motte  felt  and  expressed  the 
need  of  reform  in  the  national  drama,  and  ad- 
vised such  radical  changes  as  the  abolition  of 
the  monologue  and  the  confidant^  the  suppression 
of  long  and  useless  rScits^  and  the  preservation  • 
of  one  only  of  the  three  unities,  that  of  interest.^ 
These  protests  were  the  revival  of  the  old  quarrel 
of  the  Ancients  and  the  Moderns,  begun  as  far 
back  as  the  time  of  Alexander  Hardy,  lulled  to 
rest  by  the  superb  work  of  Corneille,  Racine,  and 
Moliere,  and  now,  before  the  mediocre  drama  of 
their  successors  and  imitators,  breaking  out 
afresh  with  renewed  force  and  power.  Houdard 
de  la  Motte,  however,  was  not  great  enough, 
either  as  a  man  or  as  a  dramatist,  to  carry  out 
his  reforms  in  a  large  and  poetic  manner  or  to 
impose  them  upon  a  public,  weary  indeed  of  the 

1  Houdard  de  la  Motte,  (Euvres,  Paris,  1764,  Vol.  IV. ; 
Discours  sur  Ja  Tragedie  a  V occasion  des  Machabees ;  Dis- 
coura  sur  la  Tragedie  a  V occasion  de  Boniule,  d^Ines. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE   159 

old  forms,  but  too  conservative  readily  to  adopt 
the  new.  His  attempts  at  dramatic  reform, 
moreover,  were  promptly  crushed  by  Voltaire, 
who,  in  his  preface  to  (Edipe  in  1729,  defended 
the  cause  of  the  sacred  unities  and  cleverly  de- 
molished the  arguments  of  Houdard  de  la 
Motte.  To  Voltaire  himself,  as  he  often  boasted, 
belongs  the  honor  of  having  made  the  name  of 
Shakespeare  familiar  to  France.  During  his 
three  years'  residence  in  England  he  became 
acquainted  with  the  English  drama  and  wit- 
nessed performances  of  some  of  Shakespeare's 
plays.  He  was  much  impressed  and  greatly  in- 
terested by  what  he  saw  and  learned  of  the  Eng- 
lish poet,  and  his  own  dramatic  work  for  the 
next  ten  years  showed  undoubted  traces  of  the 
influence  of  Shakespeare.  But  Voltaire  did 
more  than  imitate  and  adapt  Shakespeare.  He 
translated  a  few  passages,  and  hastened  to  call 
the  attention  of  France  and  French  dramatists 
to  his  strange  and  wonderful  discovery.  He  was 
at  once  attracted  and  repelled  by  Shakespeare. 
Profoundly  impressed  as  he  was  by  his  genius 
and  power,  shocked  by  his  disregard  of  the 
unities,  by  his  mingling  of  the  comic  and  the 
tragic,  by  his   scenes  of   violence   and   by  his 


160  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

grossness,  Voltaire's  judgment  of  him  was  that 
of  a  conservative  born  and  bred  in  the  worship 
of  French  classic  tragedy  as  the  most  perfect 
standard  of  excellence.  His  first  feeling  was 
not  unlike  that  of  Nicholas  Clement  nearly  fifty 
years  before : 

"  II  avait  un  genie  plein  de  force  et  de  fecon- 
dite,  de  naturel  et  de  sublime,  sans  la  moindre 
etincelle  de  bon  gotit  et  sans  la  moindre  connais- 
sance  des  regies."  ^  After  the  first  feeling  of 
astonishment  came  the  keen  and  appreciative 
judgment  which  Voltaire  manifested  throughout, 
until  the  fatal  moment  when  he  thought  he  saw 
himself  dethroned  by  the  very  man  he  had 
patronized  and  befriended. 

"  Le  genie  poetique  des  Anglais  ressemble 
jusqu'a  present  a  un  arbre  touffu  plante  par  la 
nature,  jetant  au  hasard  ses  mille  rameaux,  et 
croissant  inegalement  avec  force.  II  meurt  si 
vous  voulez  forcer  sa  nature  et  le  tailler  en 
arbre  des  jardins  de  Marly."  ^ 

This  was  the  opinion  to  which,  in  the  famous 
Lettrea  Philosophiques,  in   the   prefaces   to   his 

1  Lettres  Philosophiques :  Lettre  sur  La  Tragedie,  Paris, 
1734. 
^Ibid, 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE       161 

plays,  in  almost  everything  he  said  and  wrote, 
Voltaire  gave  utterance  in  his  honest  and  im- 
partial judgment  of  Shakespeare,  before  he  be- 
came blinded  by  fear,  jealousy,  and  passion.^ 

Encouraged  by  Voltaire,  the  literary  world  of 
France  hastened  to  extend  its  knowledge  of 
English  literature  in  general,  and  of  Shake- 
speare in  particular.  In  1730  Montesquieu, 
travelling  in  England,  wrote  that  he  had 
conversed  with  the  queen  concerning  Shake- 
speare and  the  English  theatre,  and  noted 
the  difference  between  the  two  dramatic  sys- 
tems.^ 

Anglomania  was  rapidly  gaining  ground  in 
France.  In  the  ridicule  cast  upon  it  in  a 
comedy  called  La  FrivolitS  Voltaire  might  have 
seen  a  shadow  of  the  coming  storm. 

1  For  the  whole  subject  of  Shakespeare  and  Voltaire,  see 
Voltaire  and  Shakespeare,  Thomas  Lounsbury,  London, 
1902  ;  Shakespeare  in  France,  J.  J.  Jusserand,  London, 
1899 ;  L' Influence  de  Shakespeare  sur  le  Theditre  Franf^ais, 
Albert  Lacroix,  Bruxelles,  1856. 

2  "Les  Anglois  sont  des  g^nies  singuliers,  ils  n'iraiteront 
pas  les  anciens  qu'ils  adrairent.  Leurs  pieces  ressemblent 
bien  moins  mSnie  k  des  productions  r^guli^res  de  la  nature, 
qu'^  ces  jeux  danslesquels  elle  a  suivi  deshasards  heureux." 
—  Pens^es  diverses  (Euvres,  Paris,  1819,  Vol.  VII.  pp.  265- 
279. 


162  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

"  Son  transport  I'autre  jour,  dtoit  I'anglomanie. 
Rien,  sans  I'habit  anglois,  ne  pouvoit  reussir ; 
Au-dessus  de  Corneille,  il  mettoit  Sakespir."  ^ 

A  little  later,  in  1738,  the  Abbe  Prevost,  who 
had  already  visited  England,  devoted  entire 
numbers  of  his  periodical,  Le  Pour  et  le  Contre^ 
to  Shakespeare.  He  gave  analyses  of  several 
plays :  Hamlet^  Macbeth^  Othello^  and  declared 
boldly  that  these  dramas  were  all  the  better  for 
not  having  preserved  the  unities  or  followed 
the  ancients.  Other  eminent  men  began  to 
busy  themselves  with  Shakespeare,  and  Ricco- 
boni's  account,^  and  the  letters  of  the  Abbe  Le 
Blanc,^  help  to  swell  the  testimony  to  the  in- 
creased interest  in  the  English  poet.  But,  as 
yet,  no  translation  existed.  Every  one  talked 
about  him,  but  no  one  knew  him  except  by  hear- 
say or  from  reading  the  few  scenes  rendered  by 
Destouches  and  Voltaire.  Every  one  had  ideas. 
Very  few  had  any  actual  knowledge.     Yet  it 

1  Cited  by  Hippolyte  Lucas  in  his  Histoire  du  Thettre 
Fran^ais^  Paris,  1862,  p.  66,  Vol.  II.  La  FrivolitS,  com^die 
en  un  acte  et  en  vers  par  M.  Boissy,  Paris,  1763.  The  lines 
are  spoken  by  M.  Fauster,  Suisse,  Scene  4,  p.  28. 

2  Beflexions  Ilistoriques  et  Critiques  sur  les  DiffSrens 
Thecltres  de  V Europe,  Louis  Riccoboni,  Paris,  1738,  in  8vo. 

*  Lettres  d'wn  FrangoiSy  La  Haye,  1746,  3  vols. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE       163 

was  not  till  1745  that  the  necessity  or  desir- 
ability of  any  kind  of  a  translation,  by  means  of 
which  one  might  get  at  least  a  second-hand  ac- 
quaintance with  Shakespeare,  seemed  to  be  felt. 
In  that  year,  however,  as  the  result  of  the  auda- 
cious idea  of  a  French  version  of  some  of  his 
plays,  Antoine  de  La  Place  published  a  Thedtre 
Anglois^  four  volumes  of  which  were  devoted  to 
the  plays  of  Shakespeare.^  Thus,  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years  had  passed  since  the  time  that 
Shakespeare  wrote,  before  any  attempt  was  made 
to  translate  his  works  into  French,  and  the 
ignorance  concerning  him  during  this  century 
and  a  half  was  almost  boundless. 

In  England,  on  the  other  hand,  there  was  a 
fair  acquaintance  with  the  dramatic  literature 
of  France. 2  The  plays  of  Corneille  were  trans- 
lated and  acted,  especially  Le  Cid,  which  was 
performed  before  Charles  I.  and  Henrietta  in 
1637.  Moliere  and  Racine,  though  less  well 
known,  were  yet  sufficiently  popular.  Le  Tar- 
tuffe  was  played  at  Drury  Lane  in  1670,  and 

1  Le  Thed,tre  Anglois  (Pierre  Antoine  de  La  Place), 
Paris  et  Londres,  1745,  8  vols. 

2  See  Corneille  and  Racine  in  England,  by  Dorothea  F. 
Canfield,  New  York,  1904. 


164  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

Andromaque,  under  the  title  of  the  Distressed 
Mother,  was  performed  in  1712. 

The  late  growth  and  slow  development  of  the 
knowledge  and  appreciation  of  English  litera- 
ture in  France  up  to  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  is,  at  first  sight,  surprising,  but  a  closer 
examination  of  existing  conditions  suggests  at 
least  a  few  of  the  underlying  causes.  Among 
these  may  be  noted  the  late  development  of  the 
French  drama,  the  conservatism  of  the  people, 
and  the  difficulties  of  adequate  and  accurate 
translation.  The  first  two  of  these  are  natural 
and  obvious.  As  the  golden  age  of  French 
drama  was  a  century  later  than  that  of  England, 
it  was  inevitable  that  dramatic  criticism  should 
also  be  a  century  behind,  and  that  not  until  the 
French  drama  reached  a  position  of  influence 
and  power  could  dramatic  appreciation  be  other 
than  feeble.  The  reaction  towards  culture  and 
refinement  after  the  intestine  and  foreign  wars 
of  the  sixteenth  century  increased  the  natural 
conservatism  of  the  people,  by  concentrating 
their  interest  upon  the  development  of  French 
literature,  and  thus  delayed  their  reaching  out 
after  a  knowledge  of  English  drama.  Further- 
more, whatever  curiosity  existed  about  foreign 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE       165 

literature  was  fully  satisfied,  at  least  for  a  time, 
by  an  acquaintance  with  the  drama  of  Italy  and 
Spain.  By  this  the  French  were  profoundly  and 
not  unwillingly  influenced,  for,  after  all,  these 
countries  had  the  same  racial  characteristics  as 
themselves,  while  the  English  were  then,  as 
ever,  irremediably  and  hopelessly  alien. 

But  by  far  the  greatest  and  most  important 
obstacle  to  the  early  and  rapid  development  of 
the  appreciation  of  English  literature  was  the 
difficulty  of  translation,  a  difficulty  so  great  as 
to  be  almost  insurmountable,  and  which,  even 
at  the  present  day,  hampers  the  entire  compre- 
hension of  the  one  nation  by  the  other.  It  is 
the  difficulty  of  translating  a  Teutonic  tongue 
into  a  Latin,  where  the  turn  of  the  phrase,  the 
words,  the  sounds,  are  entirely  different.  A 
literal  translation  is  a  sacrilege;  a  paraphrase,  an 
untruth.  One  has  only  to  glance  at  these  early 
attempts  to  translate  Shakespeare  into  equiva- 
lent French  to  be  convinced  of  the  inadequacy 
of  the  French  tongue  to  express  the  conceptions 
of  the  Teutonic  mind.  It  is  the  difficulty  expe- 
rienced by  a  nation  of  the  South  when  striving 
to  understand  a  nation  of  the  North.  France, 
by  her  proximity  to  Italy,  received  the  impress 


166  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

of  its  passionate  expression,  its  susceptibility  to 
beauty  in  sound,  in  light,  in  color.  England, 
like  other  northern  nations,  compressed  its  pas- 
sion, no  less  intense,  into  fewer  words,  and  found 
a  beauty  no  less  noble,  in  the  more  subdued  col- 
oring of  its  northern  landscapes.  Thus  it  is 
that  by  reason  of  subtle  differences  in  tempera- 
ment, surroundings,  and  training,  many  phases 
and  sentiments  of  the  English  mind  have  no 
equivalent  in  the  French  tongue,  and  an  accu- 
rate translation  becomes  well-nigh  impossible. 
This  is  particularly  true  of  a  translation  of  po- 
etry. Philarete  Chasles  puts  the  truth  quaintly 
when  he  says  : 

"  Le  plupart  des  traducteurs  out  fait  parler  a 
Shakespeare  une  prose  faible,  bizarre,  souvent 
inintelligible,  puis,  appelant  ce  Shakespeare  ainsi 
accoutre  a  la  barre  de  leur  tribunal,  ils  Tout 
condamne  gravement  et  sans  appel.  H61as !  ce 
n'est  plus  Shakespeare,  c'est  le  critique  et  sa 
prose."  ^ 

These  causes  explain,  in  part,  the  late  intro- 
duction of  Shakespeare  into  France,  and  the 
first  translation  fully  justifies  the  criticism  of 
Chasles.  La  Place  translated  ten  of  the  plays, 
1  Etudes  sur  Shakespeare^  Paris,  1851,  p.  340. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE       167 

and  gave  outlines  of  the  others.^  He  adhered 
strictly  to  his  motto,  "non  verbum  rendere 
verbo,"  and  the  result  is  a  curious  mixture  of 
prose  and  verse.  In  his  so-called  translations, 
he  frequently  omits  whole  scenes,  gives  merely 
an  analysis  of  others,  and  passes  over  important 
passages,  the  loss  of  which  distorts  the  thought 
and  often  changes  the  meaning.  Still,  he  / 
brought  to  his  task  sincerity  and  ardor,  and  his 
work  marks  the  first  actual  introduction  of 
Shakespeare  into  France.  But  even  more  im- 
portant than  his  translation,  from  which  might 
be  gained  an  idea,  however  incomplete,  of  the 
plays  of  Shakespeare,  was  the  Discours  sur  le 
ThSdtre  Anglois^  which  La  Place  inserted  in  his 
first  volume  by  way  of  introduction,  and  in 
which  he  spoke  of  Shakespeare  with  unusual 
justice  and  appreciation.  He  found  encourage- 
ment, he  said,  in  the  increased  interest  in  France 
in  English  literature,  and  was  aware  that  in  a 
study  of  the  English  drama  it  was  necessary  to 
begin  with  Shakespeare. 

"  J'ai  lu  et  medite  avec  attention  ses  oeuvres, 

1  The  plays  translated  were  Othello^  Henry  VL,  Richard 
III.,  Hamlet,  Macbeth,  Cymbeline,  Julius  Ccesar,  Cleopatra^ 
Timon  of  Athens,  and  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor. 


168  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

et  j'ai  senti  qu'en  les  faisant  connoitre,  je  dimi- 
nuerois  peut-etre  la  reputation  de  cet  auteur  si 
Ton  ne  remarque  que  ses  negligences  et  ses 
defauts,  sans  avoir  egard  a  la  difference  des 
temps,  des  mceurs  et  des  usages,  si  Ton  ne  veut 
le  juger  que  d'apres  la  Poetique  d'Aristote  ;  si 
le  sublime  des  idees,  la  grandeur  des  images,  le 
feu  de  I'enthousiasme,  la  singularite  des  traits 
nouveaux  et  hardis,  le  naturel  des  sentiments, 
disparoissent  aux  yeux  des  lecteurs  deja  fatigues 
par  des  scenes  hors  d'ceuvre,  choques  souvent 
par  le  manque  de  vraisemblance,  et  quelquefois 
ennuyes  par  des  details  deplaces.  ...  II  im- 
porte  peu  que  Shakespeare  ait  travaille  dans 
un  gout  different  du  notre,  cette  raison  meme 
doit  redoubler  notre  curiosite  .  .  .  un  pareil 
examen  ne  pent  que  tendre  a  la  perfection  de 
Part.  .  .  .  L'esprit  frangois  ne  doit  pas  etre  ne- 
cessairement  celui  de  toutes  les  nations  et  dans 
la  lecture  de  Shakespeare,  non  seulement  on 
trouvera  la  difference  du  genie  anglois  et  du 
genie  frangois  mais  on  y  verra  des  traits  de 
force,  des  beautes  neuves  et  originales." 

This  was  vigorous  language,  but  La  Place 
went  even  further,  and  justified  Shakespeare  in 
his  disregard  of  the  unities  and  in  his  scenes  of 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE      169 

violence.  But  he  did  more  than  this.  Not  con- 
tent with  declaring  his  beauties,  he  defended 
him  fearlessly  from  the  attacks  of  the  critics. 
Although  the  first  volume  of  the  translation  was 
cordially  received,  yet  the  sensitive  taste  of  the 
French  was  offended  by  Shakespeare's  scenes  of 
bloodshed,  his  changes  of  place  and  scene,  and 
by  his  variations  of  style  to  suit  the  character 
of  the  personages  upon  the  stage.  To  these 
charges  La  Place  replied  with  a  prophetic 
breadth  of  view  which  was  characteristic  of  the 
man  : 

"  Ces  libertes,  qui  feront  de  Shakespeare 
Tobjet  de  la  critique  des  Francois,  ne  paroissent 
pas  contraires  aux  lois  de  la  nature  et  de  la 
raison,  ni  a  cette  verite  de  sentiment  qui  les 
rassemble  toutes.  Gardons  nous  done  de  con- 
damner  sans  retour  aujourd'hui  ce  que  nos 
neveux  applaudiront  peut-etre  un  jour." 

This  attempt  of  La  Place  to  familiarize  the 
French  people  with  the  plays  of  Shakespeare 
met  with  great  success.  The  two  volumes  which 
he  had  intended  to  devote  to  the  English  poet 
had  to  be  increased  to  four,  and  in  the  selection 
of  the  plays  translated  can  be  seen  his  desire  to 
give  an  idea  of  Shakespeare's  varied  range  of 


170  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

subject.^  Although  very  mediocre  as  a  transla- 
tion the  work  marks  an  important  epoch  in  the 
history  of  French  dramatic  taste.  Its  value  lies 
not  in  its  intrinsic  merit,  but  in  what  it  was  able 
to  accomplish.  A  great  diffusion  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  Shakespeare,  an  easy  means  for  those 
ignorant  of  English  to  study  him,  a  storehouse 
of  new  and  much-needed  elements  for  dramatic 
reform,  a  distinct  addition  to  literature  —  these 
are  some  of  the  results  of  the  translation  of  La 
Place. 

The  efforts  of  La  Place  were  directly  and  ably 
seconded  by  Ducis  some  twenty  years  later. 
Meanwhile,  various  innovations,  modifications, 
and  experiments  among  French  dramatists  tes- 
tified to  the  growing  power  and  influence  of  the 
English  stage.  Two  years  after  the  translations 
of  La  Place  appeared  the  Francois  II.  of  Presi- 
dent Renault,  a  direct  and  avowed  imitation  of 
Shakespeare's  historical  dramas.  The  rise  of 
the  "comedie  larmoyante"  (1725-1740)  and 
individual  efforts,  such  as  Du  Belloy's  Siege  de 
Calais  (1765),  Mercier's  Essay  on  Dramatic  Art 
(1773),  and  above  all,  Voltaire's  emphatic  utter- 

1  Cymheline,  Julius  Ccesar^  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor, 
Cleopatra^  Timon  of  Athens. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE      171 

ances  in  1760  in  the  first  heat  of  his  reaction 
against  Shakespeare,  did  much  to  stimulate  and 
increase  interest  in  the  English  dramatist. 

The  work  of  Ducis  consisted,  not  in  transla- 
tion, but  in  imitation  and  adaptation.  He  knew 
no  English,  but  through  the  interpretation  of 
La  Place  became  fired  with  a  life-long  admiration 
and  hero-worship  of.  Shakespeare.  His  aim  was 
to  unite  the  dramatic  system  of  Voltaire  with 
Shakespearian  subjects,  and  to  adapt  the  plays 
of  the  English  dramatist  to  the  French  stage. 
"With  the  translation  of  La  Place  as  his  source  of 
material,  and  a  picture  of  Shakespeare  and  one 
of  Garrick  as  his  inspiration  before  him  as  he 
wrote,  he  set  to  work,  as  reverently,  to  use  his 
own  expression,  as  if  he  were  laboring  at  an 
altarpiece.^  His  good-will,  sincerity,  enthusiasm, 
and  industry  were  boundless ;  his  poetic  and 
dramatic  talent  unfortunately  small.  His  first 
trial  was  Hamlet^  which  was  published  in  1769. 
It  is  a  curious  mixture  of  Shakespeare  and  Ducis. 
Of  Shakespeare's  characters,  Ducis  retains  only 
five  :  Hamlet,  Claudius,  Polonius,  Gertrude,  and 
Ophelia.  A  confidant  is  introduced  for  Hamlet, 
and  another  for  Gertrude.  Ophelia  is  made  the 
1  Letter  to  Garrick,  April  14,  1769. 


172  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

daughter  of  Claudius,  and  the  whole  play  turns 
upon  the  plots  of  Claudius  to  dethrone  Ham- 
let.i 

Thus  transformed,  the  play  had  a  great  suc- 
cess on  the  French  stage,  and  Ducis,  encouraged 
by  popular  favor,  ventured  to  try  his  skill  still 
further.  In  1772  he  produced  Romeo  and 
Juliet^  a  drama  which  had  little  in  common  with 
Shakespeare  but  the  name  and  the  rivalry  be- 
tween the  houses  of  Capulet  and  Montague. ^ 
King  Lear  (1783),  Macbeth  (1784),  King  John 
(1791),  and  Othello  (1792)  testified  to  the  favor 
with  which  these  pale  and  colorless  reflections 
of  Shakespeare  were  received.  Ducis  was  him- 
self conscious  of  the  immense  difficulty  of  his 
undertaking,  and  his  timidity  is  almost  ludicrous 
in  contrast  to  the  sincerity  and  earnestness  of 
his  desire  to  introduce  Shakespeare  into  France. 

1  "  Oui,  Cher  Polonius,  tout  mon  parti  n'aspire 

En  d^trCnant  Hamlet,  qu'^  m'assurer  I'empire." 
—  Hamlet,  Act  I.  Scene  1.     Ducis,  (Euvres,  Vol.  I.     Paris, 
1819. 

2  Romeo,  after  the  defeat  and  proscription  of  his  father, 
has  been  brought  up  from  childhood  in  the  house  of  the 
Capulets,  who  are  ignorant  of  his  name.  Finally,  Montague 
appears,  and  the  play  turns  on  the  quarrel  of  the  two  men, 
and  Romeo's  struggle  between  his  love  for  Juliet  and  his 
duty  to  his  father. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE      173 

He  recognized  his  worth,  but  dared  not  risk  the 
unpopularity  which  an  exact  reproduction  might 
bring  upon  the  imitator  and  his  author.  He 
stood,  as  it  were,  with  Shakespeare  on  the  thresh- 
old of  the  French  stage,  timid  and  hesitating, 
uncertain  whether  or  not  to  lead  him  through 
the  portal,  and  finally  compromising  between 
his  fear  and  his  desire,  by  making  Shakespeare 
keep  silent,  and  by  interpreting,  in  his  own  way, 
the  words  of  the  wild  and  uncouth  stranger.  Al- 
though his  imitations  often  failed  to  convey  the 
meaning  of  Shakespeare,  yet  they  gave  some 
idea  of  his  personality  and  power,  and  did  much 
to  familiarize  the  people  with  the  English  drama- 
tist. 

Enthusiasm   and   interest   were    further    in-  ^ 
creased  by  Sebastien  Mercier  in  his  Essai  sur 
VArt  Dramatique'^  and   his  attempted  reforms    ■. 
in  Les    Tombeaux   de    Verone    (1774),  and   by    \ 
Marmontel's  Diseours  sur  la  Poesie  Dramatique?    \ 
by  Bacular  d'Arnaud's  diseours  and  his  transla- 
tion of  a   scene   from   Richard   HI.    (Act  V. 

1  Du  Thed,tre,  ou,  Nouvel  Essai  sur  VArt  Dramatique, 
par  M.  Mercier,  Amsterdam,  1773. 

2  Chefs  d'GEuvre  Dramatiques^  ou,  Mecueil  des  Meilleures 
Pieces  du  Theatre  Frangois,  par  M.  Marmontel,  Paris, 
1773.    Diseours  sur  la  Tragedie. 


174  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

Scene  5),^  and  by  Douin's  translation  of 
Othello.'^  England  and  English  literature  be- 
came the  height  of  fashion.  Not  only  France, 
but  all  Europe,  had  already  gone  into  ecstasies 
over  Young's  Night  Thoughts  and  Hervey's 
Meditations  on  the  Tombs,  The  slow  but  irre- 
sistible advance  of  the  change  of  taste  which' 
was  to  revolutionize  European  literature  and 
criticism  had  begun.  People  were  eager  for 
something  new.  The  wanderlust  was  felt  in 
literature.  With  the  enjoyment  of  melancholy 
came  the  delight  in  the  mysterious,  the  unknown, 
the  incomprehensible.  Shakespeare  was  wel- 
comed for  his  very  novelty  and  strangeness. 
To  talk  of  him  was  the  fashion,  to  read  him  in 
the  mutilated  and  modified  versions  of  La  Place 
and  Ducis  was  interesting,  and  gave  a  desire 
for  more.  One  held  one's  breath,  astonished, 
marveling  at  his  power,  his  audacity,  his  beauty, 
moved  by  his  tragedy  and  pathos,  shocked  at  his 
irregularities  and  grossness.  Acquaintance  with 
him  had  the  charm  of  novelty,  the  flavor  of  for- 
bidden  fruit;    it  gave    the    delicious   thrill   of 

1  D'Arnaud,  Bacular,  CEuvres  completes.,  Amsterdam, 
1775,  6  vols.  Vol.  II.  p.  23  et  seq.  Discours  Preliminaire 
to  Les  Amans  Malheureux.. 

2  Le  More  de  Venise,  traduit  par  M.  Douln,  Paris,  1773. 


THE   TRANSLATOR   OF  SHAKESPEARE       175 

watching  a  skilful  acrobat,  of  listening  to  a  half- 
comprehended,  pleasantly  shocking  tale.  If  this 
were  the  effect  of  a  slight  and  imperfect  knowl- 
edge, how  much  more  enjoyable  would  be  a 
thorough  and  intimate  acquaintance !  The  su- 
preme moment  had  come  in  the  history  of  French 
dramatic  taste  and  criticism.  The  time  was 
ripe  for  the  appearance  of  a  complete  translation 
of  Shakespeare. 

To  Pierre  Le  Tourneur  belongs  the  honor  of 
having  conceived  and  carried  out  this  great  and 
important  work,  which  was  destined  to  engage 
the  whole  literary  world  in  warfare,  and  to 
change  the  entire  current  of  literary  thought. 
As  early  as  1770  he  had  had  the  idea  in  mind, 
and  in  the  preface  to  his  translation  of  Young  ^ 
had  spoken  of  Shakespeare  with  justice  and 
appreciation,  and  had  stated  his  intention  to 
translate  his  entire  works.  The  time  had  now 
come  for  the  fulfilment  of  his  promise,  and  in 
March,  1776,  appeared  the  first  two  volumes  of 
the  first  complete  translation  of  Shakespeare 
into  French. 2     The  work  was  sold  by  subscrip- 

1  (Euvres  diverses  d?  Young,  traduites  par  Le  Tourneur, 
Paris,  1770. 

2  Shakespeare,  traduit  de  I'Anglois,  d^di6  au  Roi,  Paris, 
1776-1783,  20  vols.  8vo. 


176  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

tion,  dedicated  to  the  king,  and  completed,  in 
twenty  handsome  octavo  volumes,  in  1783.  It 
was  to  be  illustrated  by  engravings  by  Moreau, 
and  no  pains  were  to  be  spared  to  make  the  edi- 
tion a  complete  and  handsome  one.  The  plan 
for  the  series  of  engravings  unfortunately  fell 
through,  but  in  other  respects  the  edition  car- 
ried out  the  promise  of  the  prospectus.  These 
first  two  volumes  contained,  besides  much 
introductory  matter,  translations  of  Othello^ 
The  Tempest^  and  Julius  Coesar,  They  were 
greeted  with  enthusiasm  by  the  public,  already 
warmly  appreciative  of  Le  Tourneur's  render- 
ings of  Young  and  Hervey,  and  ready  to  wel- 
come any  new  translation  from  his  pen.^  They 
aroused  a  violent  storm  of  criticism  and  protest 
from  Voltaire  and  his  friends,  who  saw  in  them 
not  only  an  attack  upon  the  sacred  temple  of 
French  classic  drama,  but  also  a  deplorable  lack 
of  taste  on  the  part  of  the  translators,  in  ignor- 
ing the  work  of  the  greatest  living  dramatist  of 

1  "M.  Le  Tourneur  fait  esp^rer  une  Traduction  du  Thd- 
S-tre  entier  de  Shakespeare,  le  Public  le  recevra  sans  doute 
avec  applaud issement,  maison  attend  avec  plus  d'impatience 
encore  les  Ecrits  originaux  d'une  plume  comme  la  sienne." 
—  BlUiotheque  des  Sciences  et  des  Beaux  Arts^  La  Haye, 
1771,  Vol.  XXXV.  p.  363. 


THE   TRANSLATOR  OE  SHAKESPEARE      177 

France.  Before  taking  up  the  details  of  this 
literary  quarrel,  it  will  perhaps  be  of  service,  in 
trying  to  understand  it,  to  examine  the  intro- 
ductory matter  of  the  first  volume,  which,  even 
more  than  the  translation  itself,  lashed  Voltaire 
to  ungovernable  fury. 

In  the  work  of  these  first  two  volumes,  Le 
Tourneur  was  aided  by  the  Comte  de  Catuelan 
and  Fontaine-Malherbe,^  but  for  the  remainder 
of  the  work  he  was  alone  responsible.^  The 
first  volume  contained  a  list  of  over  eight  hundred 
subscribers  for  more  than  twelve  hundred  copies. 
The  list  was  headed  by  the  king  and  queen  and 
other  members  of  the  royal  family,  the  King  of 
England,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  the  "  Empress 
of  all  the  Russias."  Then  came  a  glittering 
array  of  princes,  dukes,  and  many  members  of  the 
nobility ;  of  ministers  of  state  and  ambassadors, 
the  official  representatives  of  foreign  powers, 
officers  of  the  army  and  navy,  professors,  phy- 
sicians, judges,  merchants,  the   Archbishop    of 

1  Eontaine-Malherbe,  Jean  (1740-1780),  poet  and  drama- 
tist, author  of  La  Bapidite  de  la  Vie  (1766),  Epitre  aux 
Pauvres,  Argillan,  ou  le  Fanatisme  des  Croisades  (1769), 
U^cole  des  Peres,  Le  Cadet  de  Famille,  etc. 

2  Journal  des  Savants,  June,  1779.  Preface  to  Vol.  VIII. 
of  Le  Tourneur's  translation. 


178  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

Canterbury,  and  the  University  of  Cambridge, 
the  celebrated  actors  Garrick  and  Henderson, 
and,  curiously  enough,  Voltaire's  friend,  le 
Comte  d'Argental.  About  a  fourth  of  the 
subscribers  were  English,  but  they  came  also 
from  Lisbon,  Madrid,  Florence,  Vienna,  Am- 
sterdam, and  even  "North  America."^  This 
imposing  list  was  followed  by  a  dedicatory 
letter  to  the  king,  in  which  the  translators  en- 
larged upon  the  genius  of  Shakespeare  with  a 
justice  and  enthusiasm  which  had  hitherto 
been  rare.  No  man  of  genius,  they  declared, 
had  ever  penetrated  more  deeply  into  the  re- 
cesses of  the  human  h'eart,  none  had  more 
powerfully  given  the  language  of  nature  to  the 
expression  of  human  passions. 

Like  Nature  herself,  Shakespeare  gives  to  his 
personages  the  same  astonishing  variety  of  char- 
acter that  Nature  bestows  upon  the  individuals 
she  creates.  With  her  as  his  only  model  and 
sole  teacher,  he  has  learned  the  great  secret  of 
dramatic  art ;  that  is,  to  conceive  characters  for 
the  stage  as  lifelike  as  those  created  by  Nature 

i*'M.  Dobby  Esq.,  North  America;  M.  Lother  Esq., 
North  America  ;  M.  Lottin  Esq.,  North  America;  M.  Low- 
art,  Esq.,  North  America." 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE       179 

herself.  Never  yet  has  this  great  man  been 
shown  to  France  in  his  true  glory.  He  has  hith- 
erto appeared  to  a  rival  nation  of  superb  taste  in 
a  kind  of  ridiculous  travesty  which  disfigured 
his  beautiful  proportions.  Now,  freed  from  the 
false  jewels  which  had  been  substituted  for  his 
true  richness,  and  from  the  mask  which,  while 
concealing  the  animated  expression  of  his  fea- 
tures, presented  nothing  of  him  but  a  dull 
and  lifeless  countenance,  he  will  appear  with 
all  his  imperfections  and  in  his  natural  great- 
ness. The  reader  will  not  only  find  here, 
scenes  of  nobility  and  grandeur,  but  will 
observe  that  Shakespeare,  descending  into  the 
cabin  of  the  poor,  saw  humanity  there,  and  did 
not  disdain  to  paint  it  in  the  lower  classes. 
He  seized  upon  nature  wherever  he  found  it, 
and  developed  the  recesses  of  the  human  heart 
without  departing  from  the  ordinary  scenes  of 
life.  Shall  then  philosophers  and  men  of  letters 
refuse  to  read  or  to  applaud  ?  No  !  for  the  great 
sovereign  of  France  himself  deigns  to  visit  and  to 
interest  himself  in  the  humblest  of  his  subjects. 
No !  a  thousand  times  no!  It  is  barbarous 
to  think  that  half  of  the  human  race  should  be 
vile  outcasts  unworthy  of  the  brush  of  genius 


180  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

and  given  over  to  its  scorn.  The  time  has 
passed  when  France  admired  only  the  fruits  of 
her  own  genius  and  looked  with  disdain  upon 
the  work  of  other  nations.  Now  Shakespeare 
can  appear  with  confidence  in  the  country  of 
Corneille,  Racine,  and  Moli^re,  and  demand  from 
the  French  people  the  tribute  of  glory  which 
every  nation  owes  to  genius,  and  which  he 
would  have  received  from  these  great  men  if  he 
had  been  known  to  them. 

After  this  enthusiastic  and  alas !  too  confident 
epistle  came  several  pages  devoted  to  the  refu- 
tation of  certain  statements  concerning  Shake- 
speare, which  Marmontel  had  carelessly  and 
imprudently  made  in  the  introductory  discourse 
to  a  recent  edition  of  dramatic  masterpieces. 
Le  Tourneur  showed  the  absurdity  of  Marmontel's 
remarks  and  declared  with  some  warmth  that  he 
failed  to  see  what  warrant  that  author  could 
have  had  for  making  them,  adding,  with  an  as- 
perity unusual  in  him,  that  if  Marmontel  had 
had  a  better  knowledge  of  the  English  and  had 
read  the  drama  of  their  beloved  poet,  he  would 
have  doubtless  judged  it  more  favorably  and 
more  justly.  The  statements  were  inaccurate 
and  foolish  in  the  extreme,  and  by  the  time  Le 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE      181 

Tourneur  had  finished  with  them,  Marmontel 
had  not,  so  to  speak,  a  leg  left  to  stand  on.^ 
After    demolishing    Marmontel's    arguments 

1 1°.  Page  XXX vi.  Que  lorsque  I'Espagne  avoit  Lopez 
de  Vega  Shakespeare,  au  commencement  du  dix-septi6me 
si^cle,  fit  paroitre  la  Trag^die  sur  le  Theatre  de  Londres,  et 
qu'il  paroit  avoir  eu  connaissance  du  Tb6§,tre  Espagnol. 

2°.  Page  xxxiv.  Que  les  Anglois  prirent  le  gout  de  la 
d^cence  de  la  belle  nature  en  France,  a  la  cour  de  Louis  le 
Grand,  que  ce  fut  k  Moli^re  k  Racine,  k  Despr^aux,  qu'ils 
durent  Wicherly,  Congreve,  Rochester,  Dryden,  etc.,  et  que 
tandis  qu'^  la  lecture,  les  Pontes  du  second  sLge  charmaient 
la  Cour  de  Charles  II.,  et  que  la  partie  la  plus  cultiv^e  de  la 
Nation,  d'accord  avec  toute  1' Europe,  admiroit  le  Comique 
ing^nieux  et  decent  de  Congreve,  I'ancien  gout,  le  gout 
populaire  n'applaudissoit  sur  les  Theatres  qu'un  comique 
grossier,  obscene,  un  Tragique  aussi  peu  decent. 

3°.  Page  xxviii.  Que  quoique  Shakespeare  soit  encore 
le  Maitre  du  Theatre,  et  presque  le  seul  qu'on  y  applaudisse 
avec  transport,  on  pent  pr^dire  que  jamais  sa  mani6re  ne 
sera  sinc^rement  gotit^e  en  Angleterre  que  par  le  peuple. 

4°.  Page  xxxviii.  Qu'on  abrfege  tons  les  jours  Shake- 
speare ;  qu'on  le  chatie,  que  le  c^l^bre  Garrick  vient  de  ris- 
quer  tout  nouvellement  sur  son  Theatre  de  retrancher  de  la 
Trag^die  d'  Hamlet  la  scene  des  Fossoyeurs  et  presque  tout 
le  cinqui6me  Acte  ;  et  que  la  pifece  et  I'auteur  n'en  ont  6t6 
que  plus  applaudis. 

5°.  Page  xxxiii.  Que  les  Anglois  sont  un  peuple  peu 
sensible  aux  plaisirs  de  Timagination. 

6".  Page  xxxvii.  Que  Shakespeare  n'a  jamais  connu 
cette  piti6  douce  qui  p^n^tre  insensiblement,  qui  se  saisit 
des  cceurs  et  qui,  les  pressant  par  degr^s,  leur  fait  gouter 
le  plaisir  si  doux  de  se  soulager  par  des  larmes.  —  Chefs 
WCEuvre  Dramatiques,  Paris,  1773. 


182  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

Le  Tourneur  proceeded  to  an  enthusiastic  de- 
scription of  the  Shakespeare  Jubilee,  celebrated 
in  Stratford  in  1769.  In  the  closing  paragraphs 
he  said,  with  much  truth,  that  before  declaring 
that  the  English  have  made  too  much  of  Shake- 
speare, and  are  still  blindly  worshiping  him,  it 
would  be  well  for  the  French  to  know  and 
understand  him.^  After  all,  he  concluded,  what 
true  talent  needs,  is  not  so  much  favor  as  simple 
justice. 

The  account  of  the  Jubilee  was  followed  by  a 
life  of  Shakespeare  written  with  sympathy  and 
discrimination.  Le  Tourneur's  appreciations  of 
Shakespeare  in  the  concluding  paragraphs  are 
marked  by  a  justice  and  by  a  boldness  and  indiffer- 
ence to  tradition,  well  calculated  to  scandalize  the 
conservative  worshipers  of  French  classic  models. 

1  "Avant  de  le  juger  lui-mgme,  t§,chons  d'attendre  k  le 
connoitre,  nous,  dont  une  anleur  prdinatur^e  pr^cipite  et 
^gare  quelquefois  les  jugemens ;  nous,  qu'un  premier  pas 
heureux  dans  la  carri^re  enivre  et  transporte  jnsqu'au  d^- 
lire  pour  I'idole  du  jour,  qui  proclamons  sans  pudeur  du  nom 
de  grand  Po6te,  de  grand  acteur,  des  enfans  k  peine  sortis 
du  berceau  de  leur  art ;  et  qui,  bientot,  aussi  cruels  dans 
nos  d^godts,  qu'insensds  dans  nos  caprices,  renversons, 
foulons  aux  pieds  sans  piti6  I'objet  de  notre  admiration 
6ph6m6re,  ^touffant  ainsi  le  talent,  tantdt  dans  des  flots 
d'encens,  tantdt  sous  la  verge  impitoyable  du  ra^pris."  — 
Vol.  I.  p.  xxxiv. 


THE   TRANSLATOR   OF   SHAKESPEARE       183 

At  a  time,  he  says,  when  the  Italians,  cor- 
rupted by  bad  taste,  were  listening  to  childish 
conceits  and  disdaining  everything  natural,  when 
France  still  enjoyed  scandalous  mystery  plays 
and  farces,  Shakespeare  appeared,  and  revived 
in  England  the  art  of  Plautus  and  Sophocles, 
which  had  been  dead  two  thousand  years. 
Rather,  he  created  it,  and  it  merited  the  name 
of  the  art  of  Shakespeare  as  well  as  the  art  of 
Sophocles.  1  The  study  of  the  models  which 
we  have  corrupts  and  alters  in  us  the  originality 
of  nature.  Unconsciously  we  copy  their  manner- 
isms and  defects,  and  like  magicians  in  a  fairy 
tale  they  transform  us  before  we  are  aware.  One 
reason  of  Shakespeare's  greatness  is,  that  he  came 
first,  was  hampered  by  no  rules,  bound  by  the 

1  "  Cr^ateur  de  ce  genre  nouveau,  il  sentit  qu'il  avoit  le 
droit  d'agir  en  maitre,  et  rejetta  toutes  les  loix  qui  ne  s'ac- 
cordoient  pas  avec  ses  grandes  vues  et  ses  vastes  plans. 
Peintre  de  P  humanity,  il  embrassa  tout  le  genre  humain.  H 
vit  que  les  dernieres  classes  de  la  soci6t6  pouvoient  aussi 
bien  que  les  plus  ^levdes  lui  fournir  une  foule  de  personnages 
in' ^ressans.  Tout  ce  qui  ^toit  homme  fut  sacr6  pour  lui  et 
parut  digne  h  Shakespeare  d'etre  admis  sur  la  sc6ne  avec 
les  Rois,  parce  que  les  Rois  lui  parurent  aussi  des  hommes. 
II  les  peignit  sans  farder  leurs  images ;  jamais  il  n'en  fit 
des  hdros,  ni  des  demi-dieux  imaginaires ;  mais  toujours  sa 
plume  sincere  les  repr^senta  fid^lement  dans  ses  Merits  tels 
qu'ils  avoient  exists  sur  le  Tr6ne."  —  Vol.  I.  p.  Ixxvi. 


184  PIERRE  LE   TOURNEUR 

laws  of  no  existing  school.  Had  he  lived  a  cen- 
tury later,  he  would  have  been  forced  into  volun- 
tary imitation  and  would  have  been  less  original 
than  he  was.  In  the  ideal  cultivation  of  art,  con- 
cludes Le  Tourneur,  where  fidelity  to  nature  is 
the  fundamental  principle,  it  will  be  free  from 
those  cold  and  cowardly  critics  who,  measuring  na- 
ture with  insufficient  rules,  consider  its  noble  and 
majestic  proportions  as  gigantic,  and  in  order  to 
judge  them  beautiful,  would  reduce  them  to  the 
petty  ideas  which  they  themselves  have  formed. 

After  the  Vie  de  Shakespeare  came  a  Discours 
des  Prefaces  chiefly  composed  of  extracts  from 
the  prefaces  of  various  editors  of  Shakespeare, 
such  as  Pope,  Rowe,  Warburton,  Johnson,  Han- 
mer,  Sewell,  etc.  Le  Tourneur  carefully  ex- 
plained that  this  discours  contained  very  little 
of  his  own  composition,  only  a  few  phrases 
added  here  and  there  to  weld  the  different  ex- 
tracts into  a  continuous  and  harmonious  whole. 

A  noteworthy  thing  in  this    discours   is   Le 

Tourneur's    definition    of    romantique,   a   term 

which  he  uses  and  explains  for  the  first  time  in      j 

the  history  of  literature.^  vh 

1  "  Nous  n'avons  dans  notrelangue  que  deux  mots,  peut- 
§tre  m§me  qu'un  seul,  pour  exprimer  une  vue,  une  sc6ne 
d'objets,  un  paysage,  qui  attache  les  yeux  et  captive  I'imagi- 


THE   TRANSLATOR   OF   SHAKESPEARE       185 

Although  purporting  to  be  merely  a  compila- 
tion of  extracts,  this  Discours  contained,  never- 
theless, many  more  of  Le  Tourneur's  own 
judgments   and  opinions  than  he   admitted  in 

nation  ;  si  cette  sensation  ^veille  dans  I'ame  dmue,  des  affec- 
tions tendres  et  des  id^es  m^lancoliques,  alors  ces  deux  mots  : 
Bomanesque  et  Pittoresque  ne  suffisent  pas  pour  le  rendre. 
Le  premier,  tr6s  souvent  pris  en  mauvaise  part,  est  alors 
synonyme  de  chim^rique  et  de  f abuleux  :  il  signifie  k  la  lettre 
un  objetde  Roman  qui  n'existe  que  dans  le  pays  de  la  faerie, 
dans  les  reves  bizarres  de  1' imagination,  et  ne  se  trouve  point 
dans  la  nature.  Le  second  n'exprime  que  les  effets  d'un  ta- 
bleau quelconque,  ou  di verses  masses  rapproch^es  forment  un 
ensemble  qui  frappe  les  yeux  et  le  fait  admirer,  mais  sans 
que  Tame  y  participe,  sans  que  le  cceur  y  prenne  un  tendre 
int^ret.  Le  mot  anglois  est  plus  heureux  et  plus  ^nergique. 
En  m§me  temps  qu'il  renferme  Pid^e  de  ces  parties  group- 
p^es  d'une  mani^re  neuve  et  vari^e  propre  k  ^tonner  le 
sens,  il  porte  de  plus  dans  I'ame  le  sentiment  de  1' Amotion 
douce  et  tendre  qui  nait  k  leur  vue,  et  joint  ensemble  les 
effets  physiques  et  moraux  de  la  perspective.  Si  ce  vallon. 
n'est  que  pittoresque,  c'est  un  point  de  T^tendu  qui  prete  au 
Peintre  et  qui  m^rite  d'etre  distingu^  et  saisi  par  Tart.  Mais 
s'il  est  Romantique,  on  desire  de  s'y  reposer,  I'oeil  se  plait  k 
le  regarder  et  bientdt  1' imagination  attendrie  le  peuple  de 
scenes  int^ressantes  :  elle  oublie  le  vallon  pour  se  complaire 
dans  les  id^es,  dans  les  images  qu'il  lui  a  inspir^es.  Les 
tableaux  de  Salvator  Rosa,  quelques  sites  des  Alpes,  plu- 
sieurs  Jardins  et  Campagnes  de  I'Angleterre,  ne  sont  point 
romanesques :  mais  on  pent  dire  qu'ils  sont  plus  que  pit- 
toresques,  c'est  k  dire  touchans  et  Romantiques.  — Vol.  I.  p. 
cxviii,  note.  Cited  also  by  Michiels,  Lacroix,  Jusserand, 
Lounsbury. 


186  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

his  explanatory  note.  Not  a  few  sentences  and 
paragraphs  are  of  his  own  invention,  suggested 
perhaps  by  something  said  by  one  of  the  editors 
he  had  been  reading.  From  the  shelter  of  the 
names  of  these  English  critics,  he  was  able  to  give 
utterance  to  his  boldest  and  most  radical  ideas 
upon  the  drama  in  general,  andupon  Shakespeare 
in  particular,  and  here  he  went  far  in  advance 
even  of  Mercier,  one  of  the  most  enthusiastic 
admirers  of  the  English  dramatist.  Le  Tburneur 
declared,  for  example,  that  to  condemn  Shake- 
speare according  to  the  rules  of  Aristotle  would 
be  like  judging  a  Republican  according  to  the 
laws  of  a  foreign  monarchy.  If  Shakespeare  had 
been  born  in  Athens  and  had  then  put  upon  the 
stage  these  plays  which  are  grander  and  more 
vast  than  those  of  Euripides  and  Sophocles,  it  is 
certain  that  Aristotle,  struck  by  imitations  of 
nature  so  faithful  and  so  lifelike,  would  have 
adopted  different  principles  from  those  of  these 
great  dramatists. 

It  is  an  abuse  of  criticism  to  take  to  itself  the 
right  to  govern  opinions,  to  set  up  as  sacred  one 
kind  of  drama  and  proscribe  another.  It  is 
nothing  but  superstition  to  obey  laws  imposed  by 
mere  authority,  and  the  autocratic  critic  should 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE       187 

be  called  before  the  tribunal  of  nature,  fidel- 
ity to  which  should  be  the  sole  standard  of 
judgment.  These  were  bold  words,  and  Le 
Tourneur  might  well  tremble  for  the  success  of 
his  enterprise,  introduced  by  such  an  audacious 
attack  on  the  very  foundations  of  French  taste. 
That  he  fully  realized  the  difficulties  of  the  sit- 
uation is  shown  by  his  concluding  remarks,  but 
the  knowledge  did  not  lead  him  to  modify  his 
statements.  After  all,  he  says,  our  task  is  to 
translate  rather  than  to  judge  Shakespeare,  and 
this  task,  full  of  peril  and  difficulty  in  itself, 
finds  further  obstacles  in  national  prejudice. 
Instead  of  an  encouraging  indulgence,  we  have 
in  prospect  only  the  censure  of  the  two  nations, 
and  success  seems  to  be  imposed  upon  us  as 
a  rigorous  law  and  an  ungrateful  necessity. 
Nevertheless,  he  continues  hopefully,  the  merit 
of  the  work  compensates  for  its  difficulty.  Never 
will  Shakespeare's  blemishes  eclipse  his  beauties 
and  his  glory ;  he  has  riches  enough  to  appease 
the  most  severe  critic-,  and-  criticism  will  bend 
beneath  the  charm  of  his  genius.  Our  own  na- 
tion, furthermore,  is  capable  of  perceiving  and 
acknowledging  virtues  and  talents  which  do  not 
belong  to   it.     We   have   learned   that  if   our 


188  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

country  is  blessed  with  a  benignant  sky  and 
smiling  fruitfulness,  the  rest  of  the  globe 
is  neither  savage  nor  accursed  ;  and  that  in 
the  empire  of  letters  as  well  as  in  the  physi- 
cal universe,  there  are,  in  every  department, 
advantageous  exchanges  to  be  made  of  our 
own  productions  and  those  of  other  coun- 
tries. 

There  is,  however,  at  Paris,  a  class  of  thought- 
less Aristarchs,  who  have  already  weighed 
Shakespeare  in  their  limited  balance,  and  al- 
though he  has  never  been  translated  or  known 
in  France,  they  know  the  exact  sum  of  his 
beauties  and  defects.  Without  ever  having 
read  this  poet,  without  even  understanding  his 
language,  they  describe  him,  in  a  word,  as  a 
savage  who  has  let  fall  some  happy  and  forcible 
lines,  but  who  has  nothing  of  value  to  offer  to 
a  delicate  and  refined  people.  Another  class  of 
probable  opponents  of  the  translation  consists  of 
men  who  fear  the  effects  of  Shakespeare  upon 
France  and  French  literature.  They  fear  that 
under  his  influence  the  French  theatre  will  be 
overwhelmed  with  monsters,  burials,  rivers  of 
blood,  atrocities  of  all  kinds.  Our  great  poets 
will  be  insulted  by  a  foreign  race  which  will 


THE   TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE       189 

confound  all  kinds  of  composition  and  will  bury 
our  masterpieces  under  the  mass  of  its  black  and 
bizarre  productions. 

"Vous  ne  partagez  point,"  concludes  Le 
Tourneur,  "ces  vaines  alarmes,  6  vous,  M^nes 
reveres  de  nos  grands  Poetes  dramatiques. 
Depouilles  des  prejuges  et  des  petits  interets  de 
nos  critiques,  et  stirs  de  votre  immortalite,  vous 
preferez  I'etranger  qui  a  su  inventer  dans  votre 
Art,  au  fade  encens,  aux  froides  copies,  de  vos 
serviles  imitateurs  :  et  semblables  aux  Remains, 
vous  voyez  entrer  dans  le  capitole  les  dieux  des 
autres  nations,  sans  trembler  pour  vos  autels  et 
pour  le  culte  de  la  patrie." 

From  these  sentiments  and  many  more  scat- 
tered throughout  the  hundred  and  forty  pages 
of  prefatory  matter,  it  will  be  readily  seen 
that  a  reaction  against  Shakespeare  and  the 
Gothic  drama  on  the  part  of  the  conservative 
upholders  of  French  classic  models  was  inevi- 
table. No  such  revolution  in  taste,  as  the 
immediate  and  thorough  appreciation  of  Shake- 
speare by  a  nation  opposed  to  his  system  by 
temperament,  education,  and  ideals  would  have 
signified,  was  possible  without  many  a  struggle 
and  much  literary  bloodshed.     The  appearance 


190  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

in  1776  of  these  two  innocent-seeming  volumes 
was  the  signal  for  the  breaking  out  of  one  of 
the  fiercest  and  most  picturesque  wars  in  the 
history  of  literature.  The  entire  literary  world 
was  divided  into  two  camps,  the  conservatives 
on  one  side  and  the  liberals  on  the  other.  It 
was  as  if  a  question  of  national  honor  were  at 
stake  ;  it  was  almost  an  international  literary 
quarrel.  At  the  head  of  the  arnay  opposing 
Shakespeare  was  Voltaire,  the  very  man  who 
had  been  one  of  the  first  to  introduce  the  Eng- 
lish poet  to  his  countrymen.  Voltaire's  attitude 
towards  Shakespeare  had  been  considerably 
modified  within  the  last  fifteen  years.  To  be 
sure,  he  had  not  greeted  the  translations  of 
La  Place  with  any  degree  of  cordiality,  but  he 
was  keen  sighted  enough  to  realize  that  this 
travesty  gave  too  inadequate  and  imperfect  an 
idea  of  Shakespeare  to  be  worthy  of  serious  at- 
tention. In  1761  his  conclusion  of  the  whole 
matter  at  the  close  of  his  comparison  of  Julius 
Caesar  and  Cinna,  that  the  genius  of  Corneille 
is  to  that  of  Shakespeare  what  a  nobleman  is  to 
a  man  of  the  people  born  with  the  same  intelli- 
gence as  himself,  showed  that  the  reaction  in 
his  mind  had  begun.     From  that  time  on,  in 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE       191 

his  correspondence,  in  the  Dictionary^  in  the 
ThSdtre  Anglois  par  Jerome  Oarre,  he  began 
openly  to  withdraw  more  and  more  from 
praise  and  appreciation  of  Shakespeare  and 
to  uphold  with  increasing  ardor  the  sacred 
models  of  the  French  classic  drama.  He  was, 
however,  of  too  keen  an  intellect  and  too  pene- 
trating and  just  in  judgment  not  to  appreciate 
the  power  and  beauty  of  Shakespeare,  even  while 
disapproving  his  methods.  He  admired  much 
in  Shakespeare,  and  a  study  of  his  own  dramas 
shows  various  improvements  and  modifications 
due  to  the  influence  of  the  English  poet.  Why, 
then,  should  the  appearance  of  a  complete 
translation  have  roused  him  to  such  a  passion 
of  rage?  The  reason,  after  all,  is  not  far  to 
seek.  Conservative  as  he  was  in  matters  of  lit- 
erary taste,  and  believing  thoroughly  in  the 
perfection  of  the  classic  models  of  French 
drama,  he  thought  he  saw  a  serious  menace  to 
the  purity  of  his  own  dramatic  literature  in  the 
undue  influence  of  the  Gothic  drama.  It  is 
possible,  too,  that  he  realized,  unconsciously  per- 
haps, the  lack  of  moderation  in  his  countrymen 
when  under  the  influence  of  a  new  idea.  He 
may  have  recognized  the  fact  that,  as  they  had 


192  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

gone  wild  over  the  poetry  of  Young  and  the 
gloomy  meditations  of  Hervey,  they  were  likely 
to  go  to  extremes  in  their  transports  of  delight 
in  Shakespeare  or  in  their  adoption  of  his 
methods. 

But  besides  these  sincere,  legitimate,  and 
well-founded  reasons  was  another,  even  more 
powerful,  which  impelled  Voltaire  to  the  bitter- 
est opposition.  This  was  the  feeling  of  wounded 
vanity  and  pride.  He  was  himself  a  dramatic 
poet  of  talent  and  ability.  His  work,  in  which 
he  had  honestly  tried  to  carry  on  worthily  the 
splendid  task  begun  by  Corneille  and  Racine, 
had  been  much  admired.  He  had,  furthermore, 
already  made  in  his  own  dramas  all  the  modifi- 
cations and  changes  suggested  by  an  acquaint- 
ance with  Shakespeare's  works  that  it  seemed 
to  him  the  French  drama  could  endure  and 
still  retain  its  native  purity  and  perfection. 
He  saw,  then,  his  own  prestige  as  a  dramatist 
threatened  by  too  great  an  enthusiasm  for 
Shakespeare.  Possibly  he  feared,  too,  the  de- 
tection, on  the  part  of  the  public,  of  the  source 
of  many  of  his  dramatic  innovations,  which  he 
had  neglected  to  mention,  and  which  one  might 
have  supposed  to  be  the  result  of  his  own  supe- 


THE  TRANSLATOR   OF   SHAKESPEARE       193 

rior  genius.  Furthermore,  Voltaire  had  been, 
for  years,  the  literary  autocrat  of  France,  the 
leader  and  director  of  literary  taste.  It  was  he 
himself,  he  felt,  who  had  discovered  Shake- 
speare, and  introduced  him  to  France.  The 
public  had  been  properly  grateful  to  him  for 
this  favor,  and,  up  to  the  present  time,  had  been 
generally  content  to  follow  his  lead  in  this,  as 
in  other  matters,  to  believe  implicitly  what  he 
said,  and  to  admire  as  much  or  as  little  as  he 
directed.  Now,  however,  he  saw  not  only  his 
prestige  as  a  dramatist,  but  his  glory  as  the 
leader  of  literary  taste  threatened,  and  that, 
seriously.  Things  were  going  too  fast  for  him. 
He  foresaw  that  he  could  no  longer  control 
them,  and  that  was  enough  to  rouse  his  anger. 
But  there  was  yet  more.  In  all  the  hundred 
and  forty  pages  of  prefatory  matter  to  the  trans- 
lation there  was  no  mention,  however  slight, 
of  France's,  nay,  of  Europe's  greatest  living 
dramatist.  Of  Corneille  and  of  Racine,  yes ; 
but  of  him,  upon  whom  their  mantle  of  genius 
had  fallen,  not  a  single  word.  In  his  first 
anger  he  did  not  stop  to  consider  that,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  none  of  these  things  was  true, 
or  that   there  was   no  especial   reason  why  his 


194  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

name  should  be  coupled  with  a  translation  of 
Shakespeare.  He  did  not  pause  to  reflect  that 
the  surest  way  of  retaining  his  leadership,  in 
any  event,  would  be  to  put  himself  at  once  at 
the  head  of  a  movement  as  inevitable  as  it  was 
popular.  He  saw  only  the  purity  of  the 
national  drama  threatened,  its  principles  at- 
tacked, his  own  prestige  as  a  dramatist  and 
leader  lost,  himself  ignored,  and  his  teaching 
contradicted.  It  was  too  much ;  he  raised  at 
once  the  battle  cry,  classicists  to  the  rescue, 
and  declared  immediate  and  relentless  war  upon 
Le  Tourneur  and  all  his  works.  The  story  of 
this  controversy  has  been  already  told,  and  it 
will  be  sufficient  to  indicate  here  only  that 
portion  of  it  which  directly  concerns  Le  Tour- 
neur. 

Voltaire's  first  move  in  the  war  was  his  fa- 
mous letter  to  d'Argental,  the  19th  of  August, 
1776: 

"  II  faut  que  je  vous  dise  combien  je  suis 
f^che  pour  I'honneur  du  tripot^  contre  un  nomme 
Tourneur,  qu'on  dit  secretaire  de  la  librairie,  et 
qui  ne  me  paralt  pas  le  secretaire  du  bon  goiit. 
Auriez-vous  lu  les  deux  volumes  de  ce  mise- 
rable dans  lesquels  il  veut  nous  faire  regarder 


THE   TRANSLATOR   OF   SHAKESPEARE       195 

Shakespeare  comme  le  seul  modele  de  la  veri- 
table tragedie  ?  II  I'appelle  le  dieu  du  tliedtre, 
II  sacrifie  tous  les  Frangais,  sans  exception,  a 
son  idole,  comme  on  sacrifiait  autrefois  des 
coclions  a  Ceres.  II  ne  daigne  pas  meme  nom- 
mer  Corneille  et  Racine ;  ces  deux  grands 
hommes  sont  seulement  enveloppes  dans  la 
proscription  generale,  sans  que  leurs  noms 
soient  prononces.  H  y  a  deja  deux  tomes  im- 
primes  de  ce  Shakespeare  qu'on  prendrait  pour 
des  pieces  de  la  Foire,  faites  il  y  a  deux  cents 
ans.  Ce  barbouilleur  a  trouve  le  secret  de  faire 
engager  le  roi,  la  reine,  et  toute  la  famille 
royale,  a  souscrire  a  son  ouvrage.  Avez-vous 
lu  son  abominable  grimoire  dont  il  y  aura 
encore  cinq  volumes  ?  Avez-vous  une  haine 
assez  vigoureuse  contre  cet  imprudent  imbecile  ? 
souffrirez  vous  I'affront  qu'il  fait  a  la  France  ? 
II  n'y  a  point  en  France  assez  de  camouflets, 
assez  de  bonnets  d'^ne,  assez  de  piloris  pour  un 
pareil  faquin.  Le  sang  petille  dans  mes  vieilles 
veines,  en  vous  parlant  de  lui.  S'il  ne  vous  a 
pas  mis  en  colere,  je  vous  tiens  pour  un  homme 
impassible.  Ce  qu'il  y  a  d'affreux,  c'est  que  le 
monstre  a  un  parti  en  France  ;  et,  pour  comble 
de  calamite  et  d'horreur,  c'est  moi  qui,  autrefois, 


196  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

parlai  le  premier  de  ce  Shakespeare ;  c'est  moi, 
qui  le  premier,  montrai  aux  Frangais  quelques 
perles  que  j'avais  trouvees  dans  son  ^norme  fu- 
mier.  Je  ne  m'attendais  pas  que  je  servirais  un 
jour  a  fouler  aux  pieds  les  couronnes  de  Racine 
et  de  Corneille,  pour  en  orner  le  front  d'un 
histrion  barbare."^ 

This  remarkable  document  was  widely  cir- 
culated and  made  a  great  stir.  It  came  like  a 
thunderbolt  out  of  a  clear  sky  upon  the  unfor- 
tunate translators,  and  especially  upon  Le  Tour- 
neur,  for  whom  Voltaire  had,  six  years  before, 
expressed  the  utmost  cordiality  and  apprecia- 
tion on  the  occasion  of  his  translation  of  Young. 
The  letter  was  printed  in  the  Correspondance 
secrete  in  August,^  and  in  November  appeared, 
in  the  same  periodical,  a  letter  by  Le  Tourneur, 
in  which,  with  great  generosity  and  mildness, 
he  treats  the  whole  thing  as  a  piece  of  forgery. 

1  Voltaire  (Euvres,  ed.  Didot,  1862,  Vol.  XIII.  p.  368. 

2  "  Vous  ne  pourrez,  Monsieur,  lire  sans  ^tonnement,  la 
lettre  dont  je  vous  envoie  une  copie  fid^e.  On  voit  qu'elle 
a  6t6  ^crite  dans  I'effervescence  de  la  colore  d'un  vieillard 
morose  mais  ce  n'est  pas  assur^ment  1^  la  colore  d'Achille, 
et  vous  y  retrouverez  m§ine  si  peu  la  manifere  du  grand 
homme  que  vous  douterez  comme  moi  qu'il  I'ait  Merita." 
Correspondance  secrete,  politique  et  litteraire^  London,  1787, 
8  vols.,  Vol.  III.  p.  269. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OE  SHAKESPEARE      197 

His  letter  is  embodied  in  one  to  the  editor,  dated 
Paris,  Nov.  11,  1776.1 

"  Monsieur !  vous  aurez  peut-etre  rencontrd 
la  copie  d'une  lettre  que  les  ennemis  de  M.  de 
Voltaire  ont  repandue,  a  roccasion  de  la  traduc- 
tion de  Shakespeare.  Cette  lettre  vous  aura  paru 
inconcevable,  et  vous  en  aurez  juge  comme  tons 
les  gens  senses,  qui  ont  rendu  justice  a  ce  grand 
ecrivain  en  refusant  toute  croyance  a  cet  ecrit. 
lis  ont  regarde  comme  impossible  que  cet  illustre 
vieillard  ait,  sans  motif  et  sans  offense,  laisse 
echapper  de  sa  plume  immortelle  une  foule  de 
phrases  et  d'expressions  qui  choquent  bien  plus 
la  decence  et  la  verite  que  la  personne  qui  en 
paroit  I'objet.  lis  n'ont  pu  imaginer  comment 
M.  de  Voltaire  qui  nous  a  le  premier  avertis  du 
genie  de  ce  poete  anglois,  qui  nous  a  appris 
qu'il  n'etoit  encore  ni  connu  ni  traduit  en 
France,  qui  s'est  delasse  lui-meme  h  nous  en 
donner  quelques  morceaux,  qui,  enfin,  a  daigne 


1  Correspondance  secrete,  politique  et  litteraire^  London, 
1787,  18  vols. 

De  Paris  le  11  Novembre,  1776. 

"  Je  vais  vous  transcrire  une  lettre  tr6s  ing^nleuse  et  trfes 
bien  faite  de  M.  Le  Tourneur  sur  la  lettre  que  je  vous  ai 
communiqu^e  de  M.  de  Voltaire,  k  M.  d'Argental." — Vol. 
IIL  p.  416. 


198  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

souscrire  pour  notre  ouvrage,  et  qui,  par  la,  nous 
a  permis  d'illustrer  de  son  nom  la  nouvelle  liste 
du  troisieme  volume,  m'auroit,  six  mois  apres  la 
publication  des  deux  premiers,  choisi  seul  pour 
me  faire  un  crime  de  cette  entreprise,  de  son 
execution  et  de  son  succes  chez  les  deux  nations. 
Par  quel  interet  auroit-il  affecte  un  silence  in- 
jurieux  pour  mes  deux  associes,  qui  ont  dans 
le  travail  une  part  egale  a  la  mienne  ?  les  defauts 
qui  deparent  Shakespeare,  et  tout  ce  qu'il  pent 
offrir  d'etrange  pour  le  gout  et  pour  nos  regies 
n'ont  pu  I'irriter  a  cet  exces ;  il  les  connoissoit 
avant  nous.  II  n'approuvoit  pas  davantage  les 
defauts  d'Young,  et  sa  triste  abondance  en  quel- 
ques  endroits,  et  il  n'en  a  pas  moins  ecrit  en 
1769,  au  traducteur  des  Nuits,  une  lettre  honnete 
et  flatteuse.  C'est  done  evidemment  une  in- 
sulte  a  la  gloire  de  M.  de  Voltaire,  que  la  sup- 
position d'une  lettre  injurieuse  que  rien  n'a 
provoquee,  contre  un  homme  qui  lui  a  toujours 
paye  le  tribut  d'estime  et  de  veneration  qu'on 
doit  a  ses  ecrits  et  a  sa  renommee.  Mais  quand 
il  seroit  possible  que  M.  de  Voltaire,  trompe  par 
quelque  faux  rapport  qui  I'auroit  aigri,  eut  de- 
pose son  ressentiment  dans  le  sein  d'un  ami,  qui 
croira  jamais  que  cet  ami  ait  pu  livrer  a  des 


THE   TRANSLATOR   OF   SHAKESPEARE       199 

mains  etrangeres  ce  premier  epanchement  de 
sa  sensibilite  ?  il  est  done  inutile  d'entrer  dans 
les  details  de  cette  lettre  pretendue,  pour  y 
chercher  des  preuves  de  sa  supposition.  Ce 
seroit  combattre  serieusement  une  chimere.  II 
suffit  d'avertir  que  e'en  est  une,  et  meme  cet 
avis  ne  sera  guere  utile  qu'a  quelques  lecteurs 
inconsideres,  qui,  faute  de  reflechir,  auroient  pu 
compromettre  dans  leur  esprit  trois  reputations 
a  la  fois." 

The  most  remarkable  thing  about  this  letter 
of  Le  Tourneur,  as  striking  for  its  tone  of  charit- 
ableness and  dignity  as  Voltaire's  is  for  angry 
prejudice  and  lack  of  self-control,  is  the  state- 
ment that  Voltaire  was  a  subscriber  to  th%  trans- 
lation of  Shakespeare.  Le  Tourneur  declares 
positively  that  Voltaire's  name  is  to  figure  on 
the  new  list  of  subscribers  in  volume  three,  but 
it  is  not  there,  nor  can  any  other  intimation  be 
found  that  he  had  the  slightest  intention  of  buy- 
ing it.  It  is  altogether  likely,  however,  that  he 
was  anxious  to  see  the  translation  as  soon  as  it 
was  announced,  and  quite  possible  that  he  sub- 
scribed for  it  too  late  for  his  name  to  appear 
on  the  first  list,  and  yet  before  the  publication 
of  the  first  volume  with  its  obnoxious  prefatory 


200  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

matter.  It  would  then  be  simple  quietly  to  with- 
draw his  subscription  before  any  one  knew  that 
he  had  made  it,  and  before  his  angry  outburst  to 
d'Argental.  Whether  or  not  this  letter  of  Le 
Tourneur  ever  came  to  his  attention  it  is  impos- 
sible to  determine.  At  all  events  he  never  took 
any  notice  of  it,  but  continued  for  the  two  re- 
maining years  of  his  life  to  pour  forth  invective 
and  abuse  upon  the  innocent  translator. 

Voltaire's  first  letter  was  the  signal  for  war, 
not  admittedly  a  personal  quarrel  between  him- 
self and  Le  Tourneur,  but  an  international  war- 
fare, French  drama  against  English,  classic 
against  romantic,  Corneille  and  Racine  against 
"  Gilles  Shakespeare,"  France  against  England. 
To  d'Argental  he  wrote  again,  July  30,  in  a 
frenzy  of  despair  and  rage  which  is  almost  comic. 

"  Mon  cher  ange,  I'abomination  de  la  deso- 
lation est  dans  le  temple  du  Seigneur.  Lekain 
...  me  dit  que  presque  toute  la  jeunesse  de 
Paris  est  pour  Le  Tourneur,  que  les  echafauds 
et  les  b...ls  anglais  I'emportent  sur  le  theatre 
de  Racine  et  sur  les  belles  scenes  de  Corneille ; 
qu*il  n'y  a  plus  rien  de  grand  et  de  decent  a 
Paris  que  les  Gilles  de  Londres,  et,  qu'enfin, 
on  va  donner  une  trag^die  en  prose  ou  il  y  a 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF   SHAKESPEARE      201 

une  assemblee  de  bouchers  qui  fera  un  mer- 
veilleux  effet.  J'ai  vu  finir  le  regne  de  la  rai- 
son  et  du  gout.  Je  vais  mourir  en  laissant  la 
France  barbare,  mais  heureusement  vous  vivez, 
et  je  me  flatte  que  la  reine  ne  laissera  pas  sa 
nouvelle  patrie  dont  elle  fait  le  charme,  en 
proie  a  des  sauvages  et  a  des  monstres.  Je 
me  flatte  que  M.  le  marechal  de  Duras  ne  nous 
aura  pas  fait  Thonneur  d'etre  de  I'academie 
pour  nous  voir  manger  par  des  Hottentots.  Je 
me  suis  quelquef ois  plaint  des  Welches ;  mais 
j'ai  voulu  venger  les  Frangais  avant  de  mourir." 

Voltaire's  method  of  avenging  the  French 
was  his  famous  letters  to  the  Academy,  read 
by  d'Alembert  the  25th  of  August.  On  the 
14th  he  wrote  to  M.  de  Vaines : 

"  Le  25  du  mois,  monsieur,  je  combats  en 
champ  clos,  sous  les  etendards  de  M.  d'Alem- 
bert contre  Gilles  Le  Tourneur,  ecuyer  de 
Gilles   Shakespeare." 

To  La  Harpe  he  had  written  encouragingly 
on  the  13th: 

"  M.  d'Alembert  et  vos  autres  amis,  font, 
ce  me  semble,  une  oeuvre  bien  patriotique  et 
bien  meritoire  d'oser  defendre  en  pleine  aca- 
demic, Sophocle,  Corneille,  Euripide  et  Racine 


202  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

centre  Gilles  Shakespeare  et  Pierrot  Le  Tour- 
neur.  II  faudrait  se  laver  les  mains  apres  cette 
bataille,  car  vous  aurez  a  combattre  contre  des 
gadouards.  Je  ne  m'attendais  pas  que  la  France 
tonberait  un  jour  dans  Tabime  d'ordures  ou  on 
I'a  plongee  ;  voila  Tabomination  de  la  desolation 
dans  le  lieu  saint." 

The  "  meritorious  and  patriotic  work  "  of  the 
faithful  d'Alembert  consisted  largely  in  repeat- 
ing obediently  Voltaire's  opinions,  and  in  read- 
ing for  him,  before  the  Academy,  the  letters 
which  he  had  prepared  for  the  defense  of  France 
against  England.  In  these  remarkable  docu- 
ments, Voltaire's  personal  anger,  his  wounded 
vanity,  his  brilliant  and  stinging  sarcasm,  his 
plausible  inaccuracy  and  eloquent  injustice  of 
statement  are  shown  with  a  clearness  and 
power  at  once  pathetic,  comic,  and  exasperat- 
ing. Le  Tourneur,  under  the  name  of  "  the 
translator "  and  "  the  secretary  of  the  French 
booksellers, "  was  fiercely  attacked  for  having 
wished  to  humiliate  his  country,  for  trying  to 
sacrifice  France  to  England,  for  daring  to  say 
that  Shakespeare  had  never  been  adequately 
known  or  translated.  This  was  the  secret  of 
Voltaire's  wrath.     Had  not  he  himself  been  the 


THE  TRANSLATOR   OF  SHAKESPEARE       203 

first  in  France  to  learn  English  ?  Had  he  not 
translated  Shakespeare  and  introduced  him  to 
his  countrymen  ?  For  this  he  had  already,  and 
long  since,  suffered  opposition,  criticism,  mar- 
tyrdom. With  its  usual  lack  of  mesure,  the 
pendulum  of  public  taste  had  swung  too  far  the 
other  way,  and  had  he  not  been  obliged,  by  his 
commentary  on  Corneille  in  1761,  to  try  to 
check  a  movement  which  he  had  himself 
started?  But  if,  after  all,  the  public  desires 
to  know  Shakespeare  fully,  it  should  at  least 
know  him  as  he  is.  This  translation  is  not 
what  it  claims  to  be.  It  does  not  represent 
Shakespeare  exactly.  Why,  in  a  conscientious 
rendering,  should  any  one  of  his  gross  expres- 
sions be  omitted  ?  Let  us,  at  least,  be  just, 
and  see  this  great  man  as  he  is.  In  order  to 
show  Shakespeare's  manner  and  genius,  Vol- 
taire then  translated,  with  apologies  to  his 
audience,  several  passages,  selected  for  their 
coarse  expressions,  from  Othello,  Macbeth,  and 
Romeo  and  Juliet,  This,  he  explained,  is  the 
eloquence  of  the  much-vaunted  Shakespeare. 
It  is  true  that  he  has  flashes  of  power,  moments 
of  beauty ;  but  shall  this  barbarian  be  set  above 
Bacine  and  Corneille  ?    Voltaire  concluded  his 


204  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

address  with  a  burst  of  overwhelming  and  un- 
answerable eloquence: 

"  Figurez  vous,  messieurs,  Louis  XIV.  dans 
sa  galerie  de  Versailles,  entoure  de  sa  coui*  bril- 
lante ;  un  Gilles  convert  de  lambeaux  perce  la 
foule  des  heros,  des  grands  hommes  et  des  beau- 
tes  qui  composent  cette  cour;  il  leur  propose 
de  quitter  Corneille,  Racine  et  Moliere,  pour  un 
saltimbanque  qui  a  des  saillies  heu reuses,  et  qui 
fait  des  contorsions.  Comment  croyez-vous  que 
cette  offre  serait  regue  ?  " 

Notwithstanding  the  brilliant  victory  which 
the  stir  occasioned  by  the  reading  of  these 
letters  seemed  to  indicate,  Voltaire,  whose 
frenzy  appeared  to  increase,  rather  than  to 
spend  itself,  in  the  expression  of  his  feelings, 
now  completely  lost  his  head.  Forgetting  all 
sense  of  decency,  all  notions  of  diplomacy  and 
tact,  he  first  insinuated  that  love  of  money  had 
caused  Le  Tourneur's  defection  to  the  English, 
second,  that  the  only  reason  they  preferred 
Shakespeare  to  Corneille  was  because  of  the 
superior    talent  of    the    actor     Garrick;^  and 

1  A  M.  DB  Vaines  :  7  septembre. 

*' Je  ne  suis  monsieur,  qu'un  vieux.housard,  mais  j'ai 
combattu  tout  seul  contre  une  arm^e  enti^re  de  pandours. 
Je  me  flatte  qu'^  la  fin  il  se  trouvera  de  braves  fran9ais  qui 


THE  TKANSLATOK  OF  SHAKESPEARE      205 

finally,  he  wrote  to  the  Due  de  Richelieu  ^  to 
try  to  stop  the  circulation  of  the  translation 
of  Le  Tourneur,  who  had  dared  to  put  the 
names  of  the  king  and  queen  in  a  work  which 
was  a  dishonor  to  France. 

se  joindront  h,  moi,  s'il  y  a  des  Welches  qui  m'abandonnent. 
M.  de  La  Harpe  r^pondra  mieux  que  moi  a  M.  Le  Tourneur 
en  donnant  son  Menzicof  et  ses  Barmecides.  .  .  . 

"  Je  suis  persuade  que  vous  avez  €t€  indign^  contre  I'inso- 
lente  mauvaise  foid'un  secretaire  de  notre  librairie,  qui  a  la 
bassesse  d'immoler  la  France  k  PAngleterre,  pour  obtenir 
quelques  souscriptions  des  Anglais  qui  viennent  h,  Paris. 
II  est  impossible  qu'un  homme  qui  n'est  pas  absolument  fou 
ait  pu,  de  sang  froid,  pr^f^rer  un  Gilles  tel  que  Shakespeare, 
h,  Corneille  et  k  Racine.  Cette  infamie  ne  pent  avoir  €t€ 
commise  que  par  une  sordide  avarice  qui  court  apr^s  les 
guin^es. 

*'  Je  sais  que  Garrick  a  pu  faire  illusion  par  son  jeu,  qui  est, 
dit-on,  tres  pittoresque  ;  il  aura  pu  repr^senter  tres  natu- 
rellement  les  passions  que  Shakespeare  a  d^figur^es  en  les 
outrant  d'une  mani^re  ridicule  ;  et  quelques  anglais  se  sont 
imaging  que  Shakespeare  vaut  mieux  que  Corneille,  parce  que 
Garrick  est  sup^rieur  ^  M0I6. 

"  Voil^  peut-etre  I'origine  de  la  bizarre  erreur  des  Ang- 
lais. Je  les  abandonne  k  leur  sens  r6prouv6,  et  je  ne  me 
r^tracterai  pas  pour  leur  plaire." 

1  Au  Dec  DE  Richelieu  :  A  Ferney,  11  septembre. 
"  J'ignore  si  vous  honorates  I'academie  de  votre  presence 
le  jour  qu'on  y  lut  ce  petit  ouvrage  [his  letters  of  August 
25].  On  peut  pardonner  h  des  Anglais  de  vanter  leurs 
Gilles  et  leurs  Polichinelles  ;  mais  est-il  permis  ^  des  gens  de 
lettres  fran§ais  d'oser  pr^f^rer  des  parades  si  basses,  si  d^- 
goutantes  et  si  absurdes,  aux  chefs  d'ceuvre  de  Cinna  et 


206  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUB 

The  natural  result  of  all  this  was  to  increase 
vastly  the  interest  in  Shakespeare,  and  to 
create  a  great  amount  of  talk.  Unfortunately 
for  Voltaire's  hopes,  he  was  not  taken  as 
seriously  in  the  matter  as  he  wished  and  in- 
tended to  be.  The  international  war  between 
France  and  England,  which  he  seemed  to  think 
was  begun,  died  a  tranquil  death  of  mere  inani- 
tion. There  was  plenty  of  fighting  on  Vol- 
taire's part,  but  a  lamentable  want  of  spirit 
and  action  in  Shakespeare's  country.  Little 
notice  was  taken  of  the  matter,  even  of  Vol- 
taire's letters  to  the  Academy,  which  were 
translated  into  English  and  published  in  Lon- 
don in  1777.1 

The  English,  secure  in  their  belief  that 
Shakespeare  was  superior  to  all  other  drama- 
tists, ancient  and  modern,  treated  this  attack 
upon  him  with  silent  contempt,  for  the  most 
part,  much  as  a  mastiff  might  regard  the  fren- 

d'Athalie  ?  H  me  paratt  que  tous  les  honn§tes  gens  de 
Paris  (car  il  y  en  a  encore)  sout  indign^s  de  cette  mdprisable 
insolence.  Le  sieur  Le  Tourneur  a  os6  mettre  le  nom  du 
roi  et  de  la  reine  k  la  t§te  de  son  Edition,  qui  doit  dishonorer 
la  France  dans  toute  TEurope.  C'est  assur^inent  au  petit 
neveu  de  notre  fondateur  h,  prot^ger  la  nation  dans  cette 
guerre." 

^  Lounsbury,  Shakespeare  and  Voltaire,  p.  401. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF   SHAKESPEARE      207 

zied  yelpings  of  an  angry  terrier.  With  the 
exception  of  brief  notices  in  the  periodicals 
and  a  few  scattering  comments  on  Voltaire's 
attack,  the  only  movements  from  England  in 
this  international  warfare  were  Baretti's  Bis- 
cours  sur  Shakespeare  et  sur  Voltaire  in  1777  ^ 
and  a  French  translation  of  Mrs.  Montague's 
essay. 2  Voltaire,  for  his  part,  carried  on  the 
battle  almost  single-handed,  aided  chiefly  by 
the  faithful  La  Harpe  and  d'Alembert,  and 
applauded  more  or  less  loudly  by  the  con- 
servative party  in  literature.  As  time  went 
on,  he  became  more  and  more  discouraged 
before  the  advancing  tide  of  enthusiasm  for 
Shakespeare,  but  even  in  February,  1778,  on 
his  last  visit  to  Paris,  dealt  the  English  poet  a 
final,  though  ineffective,  blow  in  his  preface  to 
Irene. 

If  England  were  backward  and  indifferent  in 
fighting  for  the  reputation  of  her  great  drama- 
tist, the  partisans  of  Shakespeare  in  France 
showed  a  fiery  and  unwearied  zeal  in  defending 

1  Discours  sur  Shakespeare  et  sur  M.  de  Voltaire^  par 
J.  Baretti,  London  and  Paris,  1777,  in  8vo,  186  pp. 

2  Apologie  de  Shakespeart  (sic)  en  reponse  a  la  critique  de 
Voltaire^  traduite  de  I'anglois,  Paris  et  Londres,  1777,  in  8vo. 


208  PIERKE  LE  TOURNEUR 

him,  and  rallied  valiantly  round  his  standard 
with  courage  and  devotion.  As  the  successive 
volumes  of  the  translation  appeared,  the  con- 
test went  on  hotly  in  the  periodicals,  and  not 
V  until   1780  did  the  warmth  or  interest  of  the 

discussion  show  any  signs  of  diminution. 

"There  are  very  strong  parties  pro  and  con 
here  at  Paris,"  wrote  an  Englishwoman  to  Gar- 
rick  in  1777.  "  All  the  Voltairians  cry  it  down  ; 
others  again  are  more  enthusiastic  (if  possible) 
than  we  are  who  have  tasted  of  the  Avon. 
For  my  own  part,  the  best  I  can  say  of  it  is, 
that  it  is  Shakespeare  reduced  to  the  simple 
state  of  nature,  despoiled  of  his  gorgeous  pomp 
and  majesty,  his  brilliancy  and  his  graces,  but 
not  disfigured."  ^ 

Grimm, 2  who  represented  a  third,  middle 
party,  actively  neither  for  nor  against  Shake- 
speare, gave  a  clear  and  judicious  account  of 
the  whole  matter  in  a  letter  to  Diderot  in 
March,  1776.  He  dismissed  as  unworthy  of 
discussion  the  question  of  Shakespeare's  merit, 

1  Garrick  Correspondence,  1777,  Vol.  II.  p.  214  ;  cited  by 
Lounsbury,  Shakespeare  and  Voltaire,  p.  409. 

2  Correspondance  Litteraire,  Grimm,  Diderot,  1879,  Vol. 
IX.  pp.  214-220. 


THE   TRANSLATOR   OF   SHAKESPEARE       209 

declaring  that  his  works  would  not  have  en- 
dured for  two  centuries  the  delight  and  admira- 
tion of  the  English  nation  had  they  not  possessed 
value  and  power.  He  deplored  the  petty  anger 
of  Voltaire  and  his  followers,  and  pleaded  for  a 
tolerant  and  impartial  judgment  of  the  English 
poet.  He  believed  that  each  system  of  dramatic 
composition  had  its  merits,  and  that  it  was  fool- 
ish to  insist  that  one  was  better  than  the  other. 
He  felt,  however,  that  there  was  danger  in  an 
excessive  admiration  for  Shakespeare,  for  young 
and  inexperienced  dramatists  might  be  tempted 
to  imitate  him  slavishly,  and,  lacking  his  genius, 
would  succeed  in  reproducing  only  his  faults. 

The  most  active  supporters  of  Shakespeare 
and  his  translators  were  Mercier  and  the  Cheva- 
lier de  Rutlidge.  The  former,  who  had  already 
announced  himself  as  a  radical  in  matters  of 
dramatic  taste  by  his  essay  upon  Dramatic  Art,^ 
continued  to  express  his  advanced  ideas  in  let- 
ters to  the  Journal  Francois,  Anglois  et  Italien.^ 
He  warmly  encouraged  the  translators  in  their 

1  Essai  sur  VArt  Dramatique,  Amsterdam,  1773. 

2  Journal  Francois,  Anglois  et  Italien,  August  and  Sep- 
tember, 1777.  Also  De  la  Litter ature  et  des  Litterateurs^ 
suivi  d?un  Noiivel  Examen  de  la  Tragedie  Fran^oise,  Paris, 

1775. 

p 


210  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

undertaking,  commended  their  method,  gave  an 
enthusiastic  account  of  Othello  and  Julius 
Ccesar,  and  fully  justified  Shakespeare's  defi- 
ance of  the  rules.  1 

The  Chevalier  de  Rutlidge,  for  his  part,  had 
boldly  asserted  the  superiority  of  Shakespeare 
over  all  other  dramatists,  and  had  defended  the 
translators,  in  his  reply  to  Voltaire's  letters  to 
the  Academy. 2  Two  years  later,  he  commented 
again  upon  Le  Tourneur's  translation  through 

1 "  We  beg  leave  to  refer  our  readers  to  the  preface  pre- 
fixed to  this  work  [the  translation  of  Shakespeare],  a  dis- 
course abounding  with  sound  sense,  and  written  with  energy 
and  precision,  in  which  these  fantastic  rules,  so  supersti- 
tiously  adhered  to  by  the  poets  in  our  days,  are  exploded  by 
arguments  founded  on  reason  as  well  as  experience,  and  so 
conclusive  withal,  that  to  controvert  the  truth  of  them  were 
deserving  to  be  answered  with  silent  contempt ;  the  marks 
of  conviction  they  bear  are  such  that  they  would  seem  tacitly 
to  reproach  us  for  having  suffered  ourselves  to  be  so  long 
circumscribed  by  ridiculous  rules,  productive  of  no  sort  of 
advantage  ;  what,  indeed,  is  that  which  is  generally  and  im- 
properly called  irregularity?  nothing  more  than  the  connec- 
tion of  facts  and  the  natural  order  of  events.  .  .  .  Penetrated 
by  the  influence  of  this  vast  genius  we  behold  him  as 
superior  to  all  other  dramatic  poets  as  St.  Peter's  Church  at 
Rome  is  to  all  other  churches."  — Journal  Francois,  Anglois 
et  Italien,  August  and  September,  1777. 

2  Observations  a  MM.  de  VAcademie  cl  V  Occasion  d^une 
Certaine  Lettre  de  M.  Voltaire^  par  le  Chevalier  de  Rut- 
lidge, Paris,  1776. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE      211 

his  periodical,  Le  Babillard,  an  imitation  of  the 
English  Tatler.  Although  heartily  approving 
the  attempt,  he  considered  Le  Tourneur's  work 
inferior  to  his  adaptations  of  Young.  He  under- 
stands Shakespeare,  he  said ;  sometimes  the 
touch  of  the  great  poet  is  felt,  but,  as  a  trans- 
lator, he  fails  to  seize  a  certain  brusque  and 
laconic  sublimity,  certain  vigorous  strokes  which 
characterize  his  model. 

In  the  course  of  his  remarks,  Rutlidge,  with- 
out calling  any  names,  took  occasion  to  give 
more  than  one  fling  at  the  criticism  of  Shake- 
speare, based  upon  ignorance,  which  was  being 
widely  promulgated  by  "I'Oracle  de  Ferney 
et  ses  echos."  In  this  connection,  he  related 
an  amusing  anecdote  which  he  declared  to  be 
true.  A  man  of  letters,  he  said,  happened  one 
day  to  be  in  one  of  the  principal  book-shops 
of  the  city,  when  there  came  in  a  person  who 
showed  plainly  by  his  dress  and  affected  man- 
ners that  he  was  some  one  of  importance.  This 
person  asked  for  the  latest  new  books,  picked 
them  up  one  after  another,  turned  over  the 
leaves,  and  bought  nothing.  Finally,  he  was 
asked  if  he  would  like  the  translation  of 
Shakespeare.     He  took  it,  turned  it  over,  then 


212  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

refused  it,  adding  in  a  pedagogic  and  absent- 
minded  manner  that  he  had  already  read  that  in 
the  "  Greek  Theatre"  of  the  Pere  Brumoy.  "It 
will  be  argued,  I  think,"  concluded  Rutlidge, 
"  that  if  this  celebrated  English  poet  and  his 
translator  have  many  judges  as  learned  as  this, 
their  adversaries  have  an  easy  task."^  Rut- 
lidge followed  this  with  a  letter  addressed 
directly  to  Le  Tourneur,  in  which  he  com- 
mended the  work,  and  urged  him  to  continue 
it,  regretting  only  that  he  had  not  seen  fit  to 
give  an  outline  of  some  of  the  more  trivial 
scenes,  instead  of  translating  them  completely. ^ 

1  Le  Babillard,  Aug.  15,  1778,  Vol.  II.  p.  335. 
«  LE   BABILLARD 

M.  Le  Toumeur,  Traducteur  des  Tragedies  de  Shakespeare. 
"  Vous  avez  eu  la  bont^  de  m'envoyer  les  deux  nouveaux 
volumes  de  votre  traduction  d'un  grand  Po6te  ;  le  succ6s  de 
cette  entreprise  difficile  doit  vous  dMoinmager  de  la  passion 
avec  laquelle  on  vous  attaque.  Ceux  pour  qui  les  cabales 
litt^raires  ne  sont  que  de  vains  et  tumultueux  d61ires  de 
I'amour  propre  des  Auteurs,  vous  lirontavec  plaisir  et  vous 
rendront  justice,  ainsi  qu'^  T^fecrivain  original  que  vous  en- 
treprenez  de  nous  faire  connoitre.  Personne  n'est  nioins 
propre  que  moi  k  faire  T^loge  de  votre  Traduction,  ni  k 
entreprendre  sa  critique  :  I'une  et  Tautre  seroient  d'autant 
plus  suspectes  que  quelques  personnes  s'imagiment  que  j'y 
ai  part,  et  que  d'autres  in'ont  pr6t6  des  sentiments  bien 
(51oign(^s  de  ceux  our  ni'ont  inspired  votre  courage  et  votre 


THE   TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE      213 

assiduity  k  remplir  une  t§,che  aussi  p^nible.  Permettez-moi 
cependant  de  vous  donner  un  avis,  qui  vous  sera  plus  utile 
que  toutes  les  values  decisions  que  je  pourrois  hasarder  sur 
votre  travail,  continuez-le,  Monsieur  :  son  importance  et  son 
prix  se  feront  sentir  d'eux-memes  ;  mais  11  est  une  esp6ce 
d'hommes  dont  vous  devez  vous  d^fier  beaucoup  plus  que 
de  vos  aveugles  d^tracteurs,  ou  de  ceux  de  votre  Auteur,  ce 
sont  ses  plus  grands  enthousiastes.  Je  n'ai  jamais  pens6 
que  tout  fut  bon  dans  Shakespeare  :  au  contraire,  j'y  vols 
une  multitude  de  d^fauts  que  ce  puissant  g^nie  auroit  6vit^s 
s'il  fut  venu  deux  sifecles  plus  tard,  je  pense  qu'il  seroit 
n^cessaire  de  d^velopper  et  de  peindre  aux  Lecteurs  le 
mouvement  et  Taction  de  quelques  scenes,  au  lieu  d'en 
traduire  fid^lement  le  dialogue.  Ce  mouvement  et  cette 
action  y  sont  iioy^s  et  an^antis.  Un  lecteur  fran^ois  s'en 
fera  difficilement  de  lui-mgme  un  tableau,  parce  que  c'est 
une  chose  ^trang^re  pour  ses  yeux  et  fort  ^loign^e  de  son 
imagination  ;  11  seroit  done  n^cessaire  qu'il  fut  averti  et 
pr^venu  ;  je  vous  citerai  dans  ce  genre  les  premieres  scenes 
de  Coriolan.  Les  Critiques  qui  ne  voient  pas  toujours  bien 
loin,  les  trouveront  ridicules  et  triviales  peut-Stre  :  ex^cut^es 
en  grand  et  mises  en  action  sous  les  regards,  elles  auroient 
produit  I'effet  auquel  le  Po^te  les  a  destinies  ;  elles  auroient 
fait  connoitre  ce  peuple  menteur  et  factieux,  qui  justifie  par  ses 
exc6s  le  m^pris  de  son  H^ros.  Yoiik  ce  que  j'aurois  quelque- 
fois  d^sird  dans  quelques  unes  des  Pieces  de  Shakespeare  que 
vous  avez  traduites.  C'est  un  des  moyens  qu'il  emploie  le  plus 
heureusement  dans  toutes  ses  grandes  machines  dramatiques. 
Vous  avez,  Monsieur,  k  combattre  les  pr^jug^s  de  I'amour- 
propre :  ce  sont  les  plus  obstin^s  et  les  plus  furieux.  At- 
tendez-vous  k  quelques  traits  d'esprit  de  la  part  de  Duluth 
et  de  tons  les  Zoiles  de  cette  force.  Je  suis  persuade  qu'ils 
vous  alarmeront  peu,  et  que  vous  leur  rendez  trop  de  justice 
pour  regarder  d^sormais  une  seule  fois  derri^re  vous  dans  la 
carri^re  ou  vous  courez." — Le  Bahillard,  Aug.  30,  1778, 
Vol.  11.  p.  382. 


214  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

The  translator  also  received  high  praise  in 
the  Journal  Anglois'^  and  in  the  Annee  LittS- 
raire.  The  latter  published  detailed  studies  of 
the  plays  as  they  appeared,  and  while  highly  com- 
mending Le  Tourneur  and  his  work,  repeated 
Voltaire's  early  statement  that  Shakespeare 
was  a  great  genius,  but  wild  and  uncultivated.^ 
Even  the  more  tolerant  and  enlightened  French 
minds  were  shocked  by  Shakespeare's  constant 
violation  of  the  rules,  by  his  mingling  of  the 
comic  and  the  tragic,  by  his  introduction  of 
common  people,  by  his  scenes  of  violence,  and  by 
his  vulgarity  and  coarseness  of  speech.  These 
faults,  however,  should  be  looked  upon  with 
induigence,  for  they  were  defects  due  to  the 
barbarism  of  the  time  in  which  Shakespeare 
lived,  to  ignorance  of  the  rules  of  art,  and  to 
the  necessity  he  was  under  of  amusing  a  rough 
and  uncultured  people.  They  are,  indeed, 
atoned  for  by  the  remarkable  power  and  beauty 
to  be  found  among  the  plays.  Nevertheless, 
continued  the  AnnSe  LittSraire^  it  is  a  pity  for 
the   reader  to  have  to  wade   through  so  much 

1  Journal  Anglois,  1776. 

2  AnnSe  LUteraire,  1776,  Vol.  II.  p.  30. 

"  Les  ouvrages  du  g^nie  ressemblent  k  ceux  de  la  nature, 
qui  n'a  point  dans  ses  travaux  la  froide  r^gularit^  des  pro- 
ductions de  Tart." 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE      215 

that  is  trivial  and  uninteresting.  "  Des  ex  traits 
bien  faits  du  theatre  de  ce  Poete  auroient  ete 
una  veritable  richesse  pour  notre  litterature, 
mais  qu'aura-t-il  fait  pour  le  profit  de  ses  lecteurs 
en  leur  faisant  acheter  20  volumes  d'ennui  par 
souscription,  quand  deux  ou  trois  volumes 
auroient  suffi  pour  leur  curiosite  et  pour  leur 
plaisir  ? "  ^  But  in  spite  of  occasional  impa- 
tience, the  general  attitude  of  the  Annee  LittS- 
raire  is  shown  by  the  concluding  paragraph  in 
its  study  of  Henry  VI.  in  1782: 

"Nous  invitons  nos  jeunes  Poetes  qui  se 
destinent  a  I'etude  du  theatre,  a  lire  cet  auteur 
avec  precaution ;  il  pent  servir  a  elever  I'^me, 
a  inspirer  des  sentimens  tragiques,  a  fournir 
des  situations,  mais  il  ne  donnera  jamais  la 
moindre  idee  de  la  vraisemblance,  de  ces  regies 
qui  ont  forme  les  Sophocle,  les  Euripide,  les 
Racine.  Cependant,  nous  ne  saurions  temoigner 
trop  de  reconnoissance  au  Traducteur ;  il  etend 
le  nombre  de  nos  richesses  litteraires,  il  nous 
met  en  etat  de  comparer,  ce  qui  augmente  les 
connoissances  et  fortifie  consequemment  les 
talens.  La  lecture  de  Shakespeare  est  capable 
d'echauffer,   de    developper    les    semences    du 

1  Annee  Litteraire,  1780,  Vol.  III.  p.  289. 


216  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUB 

genre  tragique.  C'est  done  una  nouvelle 
obligation  que  les  Arts  ont  a  M.  Le  Tourneur, 
connu  deja  si  avantageuseraent  par  sa  belle 
traduction  ou  imitation  d'Young."  ^ 

The  Journal  des  Savants  followed  the  exam- 
ple of  the  AnnSe  Litteraire,  and  gave  full  ac- 
counts of  the  different  plays  as  they  were 
published.  It  applauded  Le  Tourneur  for  his 
work,  which  enabled  the  French  people  to  com- 
pare their  own  drama  with  that  of  another  na- 
tion, and  thus  broaden  ideas  and  form  the 
general  taste,  but  declared  that,  after  all,  this 
newly  discovered  power  and  beauty  must  be 
used  with  wisdom  and  discretion,  as  had  already 
been  done  by  M.  de  Voltaire. ^ 

1  Annee  Litteraire,  1782,  Vol.  I.  p.  73. 

2  Journal  des  Savants,  1779,  June,  p.  429. 

"  Lorsque  tout  le  bien  et  tout  le  mal  sont  dits  sur  Shake- 
speare, il  faut  convenlr  que  M.  Le  Tourneur  rend  un  grand 
service  ^  notre  Litt^rature  en  nous  faisant  mieux  connoitre 
ce  singulier  g6nie  :  que  c'est  par  la  comparaison  du  gofit  des 
diff^rentes  nations  que  les  iddes  s'^tendent  et  que  le  goQt 
g^n^ral  peut  se  former  et  que  M.  de  Voltaire  lui-m§me  s'est 
bien  trouv6,  dans  plusieurs  de  ses  ouvrages  d'avoir  6t\idi6  le 
g^nie  anglois ;  il  est  vrai  qu'il  faut  savoir  employer  comma 
lui  ces  beaut^s  6trang6res,  les  adapter  h  sa  langue,  les  fondre 
et  les  placer  de  mani^re  que  la  couleur  n'en  soit  ni  effac^e 
ni  trop  tranchante  :  en  un  mot,  qu'il  faut  avoir  le  gofit  de 
M.  de  Voltaire." 


THE   TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE      217 

The  Journal  de  politique  et  de  litterature,  how- 
ever, and  the  Mereure  de  France  were  far  from 
sharing  such  commendatory  views,  but  ranged 
themselves  from  the  start  on  the  side  of  conser- 
vatism and  Voltaire.  The  former,  directed  by 
La  Harpe  after  1776,  fiercely  attacked  the  trans- 
lation, declaring  it  to  be  a  work  due  entirely  to 
party  spirit,  unfaithful  to  the  English  original, 
incorrect  as  to  French,  and  advancing,  in  its  ill- 
written  prefaces,  views  as  foolish  as  they  were 
revolting  to  all  persons  of  refinement  and  taste. 
It  called  attention  proudly  to  the  way  in  which 
Voltaire  had"  embellished  "  Shakespeare  in  1730, 
and  indulged  in  a  scathing  and  sarcastic  criti- 
cism of  the  translation  of  certain  scenes  of  The 
Tempest  and  Othello.^  In  this  its  example  was 
followed  by  the  Mereure?  which,  although  de- 
ploring the  excessive  severity  of  La  Harpe,  con- 
ceded that  the  most  just  appreciation  that  could 
be  made  upon  Shakespeare  had  already  been  ut- 
tered by  Voltaire,  not,  indeed,  in  his  later  years 
of  anger,  but  at  the  time  when  he  first  made 
the  English  poet  known  to  France.  The  Jour- 
nal de  Paris  and  the  Bihliotheque  des  Sciences 

1  See  Appendix  D. 

2  Mereure  de  France,  1781,  May  j  1782,  July. 


218  PIERRE  LE   TOURNEUR 

et  des  Beaux  Arts  stood  discreetly  on  the  fence 
and  attempted  to  agree  with  both  parties  at  once. 
All  this  discussion  in  the  periodicals,  which 
went  on  with  more  or  less  vigor  for  seven  years, 
naturally  helped  to  make  an  important  event  of 
the  translation.  No  work  was  more  talked  of 
or  so  widely  read.  It  was  the  fashion  of  the 
hour,  and  every  one  had  an  opinion,  either  his 
own  or  a  borrowed  one.  The  individual  the 
least  affected  by  the  excitement  was  apparently 
Le  Tourneur  himself.  He  went  on  calmly  and 
undisturbed  in  the  work  he  had  undertaken, 
and  as  soon  as  it  was  completed,  he  hastened  to 
take  up  another,  that  of  Clarissa  Harlowe.  His 
letter  of  surprised  incredulousness,  which  was 
published  at  the  time  of  Voltaire's  letters  to  the 
Academy,  is  the  only  direct  reply  he  seems  ever 
to  have  made  to  the  torrents  of  praise  and 
blame  poured  unremittingly  upon  his  head.  But 
he  referred  to  the  matter  once  or  twice,  showing 
plainly  that  if  he  considered  it  beneath  his  no- 
tice, the  quarrel  had,  nevertheless,  left  its  im- 
press upon  him.  In  the  preface  to  his  edition  of 
Ossian^  which  came  out  in  1777,  he  took  occasion 
to  mention  that  in  these  days  it  was  necessary 
to  declare  one's  profession  of  taste  as  well  as  of 


THE   TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE      219 

faith,  under  pain  of  literary  excommunication.^ 
Again,  in  a  notice  to  the  subscribers  prefixed  to 
volume  nine  of  the  translation,  which  appeared 
in  1781,  he  spoke  with  natural  and  apparent 
satisfaction  of  the  success  of  his  work : 

"  Get  ouvrage  a  triomphe,  apparemment  par 
son  merite  reel,  des  singuliers  obstacles  qu'il  a 
essuyes  d'abord,  de  Tespece  de  guerre  assez  bi- 
zarre qu'on  lui  a  declaree  a  sa  naissance,  du 
courroux  extraordinaire  d'un  grand  Poete,  le 
premier  pan egy riste  de  Shakespeare,  tant  qu'il 
fut  inconnu,  et  devenu  son  etrange  ennemi  des 
qu'on  I'a  traduit.  A  tant  d'alarmes,  a  ce  tocsin 
des  critiques,  qui  multiplioient  les  clameurs 
beaucoup  plus  que  les  raisons,  on  eut  dit  que 
Shakespeare  etoit  un  ennemi  qui  menagoit  d'en- 
vahir  la  France,  et  que  la  traduction  d'un  Poete 
Anglois,  qui  jadis  donnoit  un  titre  litteraire,  etoit 
devenue  une  espece  d'attentat  contre  la  Patrie. 

"  Enfin  tout  s'est  apaise,  et  il  paroit  qu'on  con- 
vient  assez  aujourd'hui,  les  uns  hautement,  les 
autres  a  demi  voix,  que  cet  Auteur  etranger  a 
un  merite  qui  n'est  pas  ordinaire.  II  paroit 
qu'a  mesure  qu'on  le  lit,  on  reconnoit  quemalgre 
les  defauts  qu'on  pent  lui  reprocher,  soit  contre 
1  See  p.  95. 


220  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

le  gout,  soit  centre  notre  maniere  et  notre  habi- 
tude de  voir  et  de  sentir,  defauts  dont  il  seroit 
bien  etonnant  qu'il  fut  exempt,  ce  n'en  est  pas 
moins  une  mine  riche  de  genie,  de  belles  scenes, 
de  situations  neuves,  de  caracteres  et  de  beautes 
dramatiques  accumulees,  ou  Ton  puise  deja  plus 
ou  moins  heureusement,  et  dont  nos  Auteurs 
feront  de  jour  en  jour  un  utile  emploi,  au  profit 
meme  du  Theatre  FrauQois,  et  des  plaisirs  de  la 
Nation. 

"  Le  Traducteur  fait  tous  ses  efforts  pour  ap- 
procher  de  son  original,  et  pour  en  conserver 
I'energie  et  la  couleur  sans  blesser  sa  langue. 
Quant  a  la  fidelite  de  sa  traduction,  dont  cer- 
tains journalistes  se  sont  permis  de  parler  en 
aveugles,  il  a  pour  garant  le  suffrage  de  juges, 
sans  doute  eclaires,  et  du  moins  les  plus  comp6- 
tents  sur  ce  point.  II  pent,  sans  orgueil,  citer 
ici  le  temoignage  des  Anglois,  imprim^  dans 
Tedition  recente  de  ce  Poete."  ^ 

1  "Let  me  not  forget  the  justice  due  to  these  ingenious 
Frenchmen  whose  skill  and  industry  ♦  in  the  execution  of 
their  very  difficult  undertaking  is  only  exceeded  by  such  a 
display  of  candour,  as  would  serve  to  cover  the  imperfec- 
tions of  much  less  elegant  and  judicious  writers."  —  Tom.  I. 
p.  210,  seconde  Mition  de  Samuel  Johnson  and  George 
Steevens,  Londres,  1778. 

*  "Fidelity  "  in  8d  edition,  1786,  Vol.  I.  p.  216. 


THE  TRANSLATOK  OF  SHAKESPEARE      221 

Le  Tourneur,  furthermore,  had  already  taken 
a  quiet  and  indirect  revenge  upon  his  detractors 
by  printing,  as  a  preface  to  volume  seven  the 
year  before,  parts  of  Mrs.  Montague's  letter, 
and  some  of  the  criticism  of  Eschenburg,  who 
was,  at  the  same  time,  getting  out  a  new  edition 
of  a  German  translation  by  Wieland.  Eschen- 
burg treated  Voltaire  and  his  supporters  with 
scant  respect,  declaring  that  the  former  was  an 
imitator  of  Shakespeare,  and  referring  to  his 
criticism  of  Julius  Csesar  as  "  froide  et  jalouse." 

But  with  these  few  exceptions,  Le  Tourneur 
treated  the  whole  quarrel  with  dignified  silence. 
As  he  said,  his  work  succeeded  by  its  own 
merits.  He  accomplished  his  end.  He  made 
the  French  people  acquainted  with  Shakespeare. 
His  translation  not  only  aroused  national  inter- 
est, it  became  the  standard  through  which  his 
countrymen  were  to  judge  Shakespeare,  and  an 
edition  of  it,  revised  by  Guizot,  is  still  in  use  at 
the  present  day. 

The  question  now  arises  as  to  the  nature  of 
the  translation  which  aroused  so  fierce  a  dis- 
cussion and  which  played  so  important  a  part 
in  the  history  of  Shakespeare  in  France.  Be- 
fore entering  upon  an  examination  of  its  merits 


222  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

and  demerits,  however,  it  may  be  of  interest  to 
inquire  what  was  the  purpose  and  method  of 
the  translators  in  making  it.  This  they  explain 
clearly  and  at  length  in  the  "  Avis  sur  cette 
Traduction "  which  closes  the  introductory 
matter  to  volume  one. 

"  C'est  une  traduction  exacte  et  vraiment 
fidele  que  nous  donnons  ici,"  they  begin  confi- 
dently ;  "  c'est  une  copie  ressemblante  ou  Ton 
retrouvera  I'ordon nance,  les  attitudes,  le  coloris, 
les  beautes  et  les  defauts  du  tableau.  Par  cette 
raison  meme  elle  n'est  pas,  et  ne  doit  pas  etre 
toujours  rigoureusement  litterale  ;  ce  seroit  etre 
infidele  a  la  verite  et  trahir  la  gloire  du  poete. 
II  y  a  souvent  des  metaphores  et  des  expres- 
sions qui,  rendues  mot  a  mot  dans  notre  langue 
seroient  basses  ou  ridicules,  lorsqu'elles  sont 
nobles  dans  1' original ;  car  en  Anglois  il  est  tres 
peu  de  mots  bas.  .  .  .  Ainsi  le  devoir  d'etre  fide- 
les  nous  imposoit  celui  de  substituer  a  une  meta- 
phore  qui,  en  Francois  seroit  de  venue  abjecte  et 
populaire,  une  metaphore  ^quivalente,  qui  con- 
servat  la  dignite  de  I'original,  et  de  chercher  un 
autre  mot  pour  rendre  le  mot  qui  se  trouveroit 
bas  dans  notre  langue,  si  on  le  traduisoit,  comme 
traduisent  les  dictionnaires."     The   translators 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF   SHAKESPEARE      223 

regret  that  a  large  number  of  the  beauties  of 
metre  and  harmony  of  words  have  necessarily 
disappeared  in  their  rendering.  In  order  to 
save  as  many  as  possible  they  have  followed 
Shakespeare's  arrangement  of  phrases,  his  turns 
of  expression,  and  even  his  inversions,  as  far  as 
they  could,  in  the  hope  that  they  would  have 
even  more  grace  and  energy  in  French.  But, 
they  conclude,  prudently,  "  Si  quelque  fois  on 
est  arrete  par  une  expression  moins  noble,  on 
verra  qu'elle  tient  au  caractere  et  que  nous 
I'avons  preferee  a  un  terme  plus  releve  pour 
conserver  a  I'original  sa  couleur,  et  au  caractere, 
sa  verite."  The  same  desire  to  transport  the 
spirit  of  Shakespeare  into  their  own  tongue  had 
caused  them  to  hazard  at  times  an  expression 
either  obsolete  or  new.  To  this  expedient  they 
have  had  recourse,  not  from  any  bold  desire  to 
perfect  the  French  language,  but  in  the  ne- 
cessity of  despair.  Finally,  they  attempt  to 
forestall  possible  criticism  for  their  rash  and 
unwarranted  procedure  by  the  words,  "  Si  la 
critique  a  la  generosite  de  nous  indiquer  quel- 
que ressource  d'expression  que  notre  vue  bornee 
n'ait  pas  aper9ue,  nous  profiterons  aussi  de  ses 
bienfaits  dans  une  nouvelle  edition." 


224  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

With  this  high  ideal  before  them,  the  transla- 
tors set  to  work.  They  began  with  the  tragedies, 
which  always  seem  to  have  attracted  the  French 
more  than  the  comedies.  The  first  two  volumes 
upon  which  the  three  scholars  labored  contained 
Othello^  The  Tempest^  and  Julius  Ccesar.  Le 
Tourneur,  when  left  alone  to  complete  the  task, 
continued  with  the  tragedies,  and  in  1778  pub- 
lished the  third  and  fourth  volumes,  containing 
Coriolanus^  Macbeth^  Cymbeline^  and  Romeo  and 
Juliet.  These  were  followed  by  King  Lear^ 
Hamlet^  Antony  and  Cleopatra^  and  Timon  of 
Athens^  in  volumes  five  and  six  the  next 
year,  and  the  seven  succeeding  volumes  were 
devoted  to  the  historical  plays,  the  last  seven 
of  all,  from  1781-1783,  containing  the  comedies. 

It  is  to  be  noted,  in  regard  to  this  translation 
as  a  whole,  that  it  was  not  only  a  bold  under- 
taking, but  also  a  sincere  attempt  to  produce  a 
thorough  and  scholarly  piece  of  work.  A 
moment's  comparison  with  what  had  been  al- 
ready done  in  the  translation  of  Shakespeare 
shows  the  immense  advantage  of  this  over  all  that 
had  preceded  it.  In  the  first  place,  the  large 
amount  of  prefatory  matter,  the  life  of  Shake- 
speare, and  the  comments  of  his  various  editors 


THE   TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE      225 

in  England,  men  above  all  others  qualified 
to  speak  with  authority,  were  an  honest  effort 
to  explain  his  apparently  anomalous  position 
and  to  give  the  reader  some  kind  of  a  literary 
background.  The  translation  itself  was  made 
with  the  greatest  care,  not  from  one  edition 
alone,  but  from  a  comparative  study  of  the 
different  texts,  and  was  enriched  with  notes, 
taken,  in  most  cases,  from  the  English  editors. 
An  attempt  was  made,  furthermore,  at  com- 
pleteness, by  giving,  as  far  as  possible,  the 
sources  of  each  play,  and  some  critical  com- 
ments on  it.  With  all  their  good  intentions 
and  in  spite  of  all  the  scrupulous  care  which 
they  professed  to  use  in  their  work,  the  trans- 
lators cannot  be  said,  from  the  modern  point  of 
view,  to  have  reached  the  lofty  standard  of  in- 
terpretation which  they  had  set  themselves  to 
attain.  On  the  score  of  accuracy,  the  transla- 
tion leaves  much  to  be  desired.  Many  passages 
are  inadequately  and  some  wrongly  translated. 
The  methods  of  the  interpreter  of  Young  are 
clearly  perceptible,  and  Le  Tourneur's  desire  to 
present  his  author  in  the  most  favorable  light  leads 
him,  not  infrequently,  to  try  to  embellish  his  origi- 
nal.    To  any  one  already  acquainted  with  his 


226  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

work,  however,  and  remembering  the  ideal  of 
the  eighteenth  century  in  regard  to  the  privi- 
leges and  prerogatives  of  the  translator,  it  will 
not  be  a  matter  for  surprise  to  find  many  liber- 
ties taken  with  the  text.  Figures  and  meta- 
phors are  changed,  coarse  expressions  softened, 
paraphrase  is  employed,  words  and  phrases  in- 
serted, occasional  sentences,  paragraphs,  and 
plays  upon  words  are  omitted  or  explained 
in  a  note.  Stage  directions  are  frequently 
added  to  give  color  and  vividness  to  the  scene. 
For  example :  "  Desdemona  entre,  jeune,  belle, 
paree  de  perles  et  de  diamans  suivant  I'usage 
de  Venise.  Son  front  est  serein,  son  maintien 
annonce  la  pudeur.  lago  I'accompagne  suivi 
des  officiers  du  Senat."^  The  English  has 
merely :  "  Enter  Desdemona,  lago,  and  Attend- 
ants." ^  In  accordance  with  the  tradition  of 
the  French  theatre,  the  entry  of  a  new  actor 
upon  the  stage  is  marked  by  the  beginning  of 
a  new  scene.  Otherwise,  Shakespeare's  arrange- 
ment is  scrupulously  followed.  In  almost  every 
case  where  Le  Tourneur  has  added  more  than  a 

1  Shakespeare^  &€6.\€  au  Roi,  Vol.  I.  Othello^  Act  I.  Scene  9. 

2  Shakespeare,   ed.   Johnson  and   Steevens,  3d  edition, 
1786,  Vol.  X.  Othello,  Act  I.  Scene  3. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF   SHAKESPEARE      227 

word,  changed  the  metaphor,  or  amplified  to 
any  extent,  he  gives  the  English  reading  con- 
scientiously in  a  note,  with  a  literal  rendering 
or  an  explanation  of  the  exact  meaning  of  the 
phrase.  On  the  whole,  the  thought  is  pretty 
well  rendered,  though  the  translation  is  far 
from  being  as  exact  as  its  authors  claimed. 
Nevertheless,  it  preserves  the  essential  char- 
acteristics of  Shakespeare  and  now  and  then 
catches  and  reflects  something  of  his  atmos- 
phere and  spirit. 

Le  Tourneur's  skill  in  a  fairly  literal  render- 
ing of  poetry  and  of  oratory  will  be  readily  seen 
by  a  glance  at  his  version  of  one  of  Ariel's  songs 
in  The  Tempest^  and  the  beginning  of  Antony's 
famous  speech  over  the  body  of  Caesar.^ 

1  "  Amis,  Remains,  Compatriotes,  pretez  moi  I'Oreille.  Je 
viens  pour  inhumer  C^sar,  non  pour  le  louer.  Le  mal  que 
font  les  hommes  vit  apr^s  eux :  le  bien  est  souvent  enseveli 
avec  leurs  cendres.  Qu'il  en  soit  ainsi  de  C6sar. -^Le  noble 
Brutus  vous  a  dit  que  C^sar  fut  ambitieux  :  s'il  fut  tel,  c'^toit 
une  faute  gr^ve  et  C^sar  I'a  rigoureusement  expire. — lei, 
de  I'aveu  de  Brutus  et  des  autres,  car  Brutus  est  un  homme 
d'honneur,  et  tous  les  autres  aussi  sont  des  hommes  d'hon- 
neur,  je  viens  pour  parler  aux  fun^railles  de  C^sar.  II  6toit 
mon  ami,  il  fut  fiddle  et  juste  envers  moi ;  mais  Brutus  dit 
qu'il  6toit  ambitieux  et  certes  Brutus  est  un  iiomme  d'hon- 
neur.—  C^sar  a  ramen6  dans  Rome  une  foule  de  captifs, 
dont  les  rangons  ont  rempli  les  coffres  publics;  est-ce  en 


228  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUB 

In  the  matter  of  style,  Shakespeare,  in  his 
journey  across  the  Channel,  inevitably  suffered 
a  "sea  change"  into  something  which  was 
"strange  "at  least,  if  not  "rich."  Le  Tour- 
neur's  desire  to  be  exact,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  make  his  author  speak  a  language  pure  and 
noble  as  befitted  the  ideal  of  the  French  classic 

ce  point  qu'il  parut  ambitieux?     Lorsque  les  pauvres  g6- 
missoient,  C^sar  pleuroit.     L'ambition  seroit  form^e  d'une 
trempe  plus  dure.     Cependant  Brutus  dit  qu'il  6toit  ambi- 
tieux, et  Brutus  est  un  homme  plein  d'honneur.  —  Vous 
avez  tous  vu  qu'aux  Lupercales  trois  fois  je  lui  pr^sentai 
une  couronne  de  Roi,  et  que  trois  fois  il  la  refusa.    ifctoit-ce 
1^  de  I'arabition  ?    Mais  Brutus  dit  qu'il  ^toit  ambitieux  et 
stirement  Brutus  est  homme  d'honneur.     Je  ne  parle  point 
pour  d^sapprouver  ce  que  Brutus  a  dit,  mais  je  suis  ici  pour 
dire  ce  que  je  sais.  — Vous  I'aimiez  tous  autrefois,  et  ce  ne 
fut  pas  sans  cause  :  quelle  cause  vous  empeche  done  aujour- 
d'hui  de  pleurer  sur  lui?  — O  discernement  tu  as fui  chez  les 
brutes  grossi^res,  et  les  hommes  ont  perdu  leur  raison !  — 
Soyez  indulgent  pour  moi  :  mon  cceur  est  1^,  dans  ce  cer- 
ceuil  avec  C6sar:   jusqu'^  ce  que  je  Tai  rappel6  k  moi,  il 
faut  que  je  m'arrete.  — Act  III.  Scene  6.  Vol.  I.  p.  289. 
"  A  cinq  brasses  sous  les  eaux  ton  P^re  est  gisant. 
Ses  OS  revivent  changes  en  corail  pur. 
Oil  furent  ses  yeux  deux  perles  brillent. 
Rien  de  lui  n'est  fletri  dans  le  tombeau. 
Tout  en  lui  a  ressenti  la  puissance  de  la  mer, 
Et  s'est  revetu  d'une  substance  precieuse  et  nouvelle. 
D'heure  en  heure  les  nymphes  de  la  mer  tintent  son  glas. 
ijfccoute  I  J'entens  leurs  sons,  dont  les  ondes  bourdonnent." 
—  Vol.  I.  p.  53,  Act  I.  Scene  5. 


THE  TRANSLATOR   OF  SHAKESPEARE      229 

stage,  resulted  in  a  style  which  was  often,  as  his 
critics  justly  remarked,  neither  Shakespearian 
nor  yet  distinctively  French.  In  his  effort  to 
render  Shakespeare  in  the  "  style  noble "  he 
forgot,  or  failed  to  see,  that  one  of  the  most 
striking  characteristics  of  the  English  poet  is 
his  simplicity  of  expression.  In  Le  Tourneur's 
rendering  he  is  often  elegant,  wordy,  bombas- 
tic. "A  man"  frequently  becomes  "un  guer- 
rier  " ;  "a  horse,"  " un  coursier  " ;  "a  church," 
"  un  temple. "  The  witches  in  Macbeth  are  "  ma- 
giciennes,"  the  devil  "I'oracle  des  enfers."  The 
watch  dog  and  the  hunting  dog  appear  as 
"I'espece  qui  fait  sentinelle,  Tautre  qui  lance 
le  gibier  dans  les  forets."  A  bold  figure  of 
speech  becomes  often  a  colorless  and  conven- 
tional expression,  as : 

"  Sleep  shall  neither  night  nor  day 
Hang  upon  his  penthouse  lid." 

—  Macbeth,  1.  S. 

"  Ni  nuit,  ni  jour  le  sommeil  ne  reposera  sur 
sa  paupiere. "  ^ 

Many  pages  could  easily  be  filled  with  similar 
and  even  worse  examples  of  inadequacy,  both 

1  Cited  byBeljame,  Macbeth,  texte  critique,  Paris,  1897, 
Introd. 


230  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

in  accuracy  and  in  style.  But  as  a  whole,  Le 
Tourneur's  prose  is  generally  clear,  and  has 
a  certain  bombastic  dignity  which  too  often  de- 
generates into  feebleness  and  awkwardness,  but 
which,  at  times,  rises  to  a  rhythmical  march, 
through  which  faintly  echoes  the  majesty  of 
Shakespeare's  stately  verse. 

But  instead  of  dwelling  upon  detached  phrases 
and  single  sentences,  it  will  be  of  more  service 
in  gaining  an  idea  of  Le  Tourneur's  style  as  a 
whole,  to  consider  his  translation  of  longer  and 
more  complete  passages.  For  the  sake  of  show- 
ing his  power  of  rendering  a  difficult  selection 
it  may  be  interesting  to  compare  his  translation 
of  the  celebrated  monologue  in  Hamlet  with  an 
earlier  version,  Voltaire's,  and  a  later  one,  that 
of  FranQois  Victor  Hugo,  in  1859. 

Voltaire's  version,  printed  in  the  Lettre  sur 
la  TragSdie^'^  is  as  follows  : 

"  Etre  ou  n'etre  pas,  c'est  Ik  la  question ; 
S'il  est  plus  noble  dans  I'esprit  de  souffrir 
Les  piqures  et  les  fleches  de  Taffreuse  fortune, 
Ou  de  prendre  les  armes  contre  une  mer  de  trouble, 
Et.  en  s'opposant  k  eux,  les  finir?     Mourir,  dormir, 
Rien  de  plus,  et  par  ce  sorameil  dire :     Nous  terminons 

*  Lettres  Philosophiques^  Paris,  1734. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE      231 

Les  peines  du  coeur,  et  dix  rnille  chocs  naturels 

Dont  la  chair  est  heritiere ;  c'est  une  cousommation 

Ardemment  desirable,  Mourir,  dormir : 

Dormir,  peut-etre  rever !  Ah !  voilk  le  mal ! 

Car  dans  ce  sommeil  de  la  mort,  quels  reves  aura-t-on, 

Quand  on  a  depouille  cette  enveloppe  mortelle? 

C'est  la  ce  qui  fait  penser :  c'est  Ik  la  raison 

Qui  donne  k  la  calamite  une  vie  si  longue : 

Car  qui  voudrait  supporter  les  coups  et  les  injures  du 

temps, 
Les  torts  de  I'oppresseur,  les  dedains  de  I'orgueilleux, 
Les  angoisses  d'un  amour  meprise,  les  delais  de  la  justice 
L'insolence  des  grandes  places  et  les  rebuts 
Que  le  merite  patient  essuie  de  Fhorame  indigne, 
Quand  il  pent  faire  son  quietus 
Avec  une  simple  aiguille  k  tete  ?  qui  voudrait  porter  ces 

fardeaux, 
Sangloter,  suer  sous  une  fatigante  vie  ? 
Mais  cette  crainte  de  quelque  chose  apres  la  mort, 
Ce  pays  ignore,  des  borne s  duquel 
Nul  voyageur  ne  revient,  embarrasse  la  volont^, 
Et  nous  fait  supporter  les  maux  que  nous  avons, 
Plutot  que  de  courir  vers  d'autres  que  nous  ne  connais- 

sons  pas. 
Ainsi  la  conscience  fait  des  poltrons  de  nous  tous: 
Ainsi  la  couleur  naturelle  de  la  resolution 
Est  ternie  par  les  pales  teintes  de  la  pensee. 
Et  les  entreprises  les  plus  importantes, 
Par  ce  respect,  tournent  leur  courant  de  travers, 
Et  perdent  leur  nom  d'actidn." 

Perhaps  the  best  criticism  of  this  is  in  Vol- 
taire's own  words :    "  II   est  bien   aise  de  rap- 


232  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

porter  en  prose  les  sottises  d'un  poete,  mais 
tres  difficile  de  traduire  ses  beaux  vers." 

Le  Tourneur  renders  thus : 

''fitre  ou  ne  pas  etre  ?  c*est  la  la  question. 
.  .  .  S'il  est  plus  noble  a  I'ame  de  souffrir  les 
traits  poignans  de  I'injuste  fortune,  ou,  se  revol- 
tant  contre  cette  multitude  de  maux,  de  s'op- 
poser  au  torrent,  et  les  finir  ?  Mourir  —  dormir 
—  Rien  de  plus,  et  par  ce  sommeil,  dire :  Nous 
mettons  un  terme  aux  angoisses  du  coeur,  et  a 
cette  foule  de  plaies  et  de  douleurs,  I'heritage 
naturel  de  cette  masse  de  chair  .  .  .  ce  point,  ou 
tout  est  consomme,  devroit  etre  desire  avec  fer- 
veur.  —  Mourir.  —  Dormir.  —  Dormir  !  Rever 
peut-etre :  oui,  voila  le  grand  obstacle :  —  car 
de  savoir  quels  songes  peuvent  survenir  dans 
ce  sommeil  de  la  mort,  apres  que  nous  nous 
sommes  depouilles  de  cette  enveloppe  mortelle, 
c'est  de  quoi  nous  forcer  a  faire  une  pause. 
Voila  Tidee  qui  donne  une  si  longue  vie  a  la 
calamite.  Car  quel  homme  voudroit  supporter 
les  traits  et  les  injures  du  temps,  les  injustices 
de  Toppresseur,  les  outrages  de  I'orgueilleux, 
les  tortures  de  I'amour  meprise,  les  longs  de- 
lais  de  la  loi,  I'insolence  des  grands  en  place, 
et  les  avilissans  rebuts   que   le   merite  patient 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE      233 

essuie  de  I'homme  sans  ame ;  lorsqu'avec  un 
poin9on  il  pourroit  lui-meme  se  procurer  le 
repos  ?  Qui  voudroit  porter  tous  ces  f ardeaux 
et  suer  et  gemir  sous  le  poids  d'une  laborieuse 
vie,  si  ce  n'est  que  la  crainte  de  quelque  ave- 
nir  apres  la  roort.  .  .  .  Cette  contree  ignoree 
dont  nul  voyageur  ne  revient,  plonge  la  vo- 
lonte  dans  une  affreuse  perplexite,  et  nous  fait 
preferer  de  supporter  les  maux  que  nous  sen- 
tons,  plutot  que  de  fuir  vers  d'autres  maux  que 
nous  ne  connoissons  pas.  Ainsi  la  conscience 
fait  de  nous  tous  des  poltrons ;  ainsi  tout  le  fea 
de  la  resolution  la  plus  determinee  se  decolore 
et  s'eteint  devant  la  p^le  lueur  de  cette  pensee. 
Les  projets  enfantes  avec  le  plus  d'energie  et 
d'audace,  detournent  a  cet  aspect  leur  course  et 
retournent  dans  le  neant  le  I'imagination."  — 
Vol.  III.  p.  119. 

Finally,  Hamlet's  speech,  after  the  wave  of 
the  Romantic  Movement  had  passed  over 
France,  emerges  as  follows  from  the  hands  of 
Frangois  Victor  Hugo : 

"Etre  ou  ne  pas  etre,  c'est  la  la  question.  — 
Y  a-t-il  plus  de  noblesse  d'ame  a  subir  —  la 
fronde  et  les  fieches  de  la  fortune  outrageante  — 
ou  bien  a  s'armer  contre  une  mer  de  douleurs  et 


234  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

a  I'arreter  par  une  re  volte  ?     Mourir  .  .  .  dormir, 

—  rien  de  plus ;  .  .  .  et  dire  que  par  ce  sommeil 
nous  mettons  fin  —  aux  maux  du  coeur  et  aux 
mille  tortures  naturelles  —  qui  sont  le  legs  de 
la  chair:  c'est  la  un  denouement  qu'on  doit 
souhaiter    avec    ferveur.     Mourir  .  .   .  dormir, 

—  dormir  !  peut-etre  rever !  Oui,  la  est  I'embar- 
ras.  —  Car  quels  reves  peut-il  nous  venir 
dans  ce  sommeil  de  la  mort,  —  quand  nous 
sommes  debarrasses  de  I'etreinte  de  cette  vie? 

—  Voila  qui  doit  nous  arreter.  C'est  cette 
reflexion  la  —  qui  nous  vaut  la  calamite  d'une 
si  longue  existence.  —  Qui,  en  effet,  voudrait 
supporter  les  flagellations  et  les  dedains  du 
monde, — Tin  jure  de  I'oppresseur,  I'humiliation 
de  la  pauvrete,  —  les  angoisses  de  Tamour  me- 
prise,  les  lenteurs  de  la  loi,  —  Tinsolence  du 
pouvoir  et  les  rebuffades  —  que  le  m^rite  t6- 
signe  regoit  d'hommes  indignes,  —  s'il  pouvait 
en  etre  quitte  —  avec  un  simple  poinQon?  Qui 
voudrait  porter  ces  fardeaux,  —  grogner  et  suer 
sous  une  vie  accablante,  —  si  la  crainte  de  quel- 
que  chose  apres  la  mort,  —  de  cette  region 
inexploi'^e,  d'ou  —  nul  voyageur  ne  revient,  ne 
troublait  la  volont^,  —  et  ne  nous  faisait  sup- 
porter les  maux  que  nous  avons  —  par  peur  de 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE   235 

nous  lancer  dans  ceux  que  nous  ne  connaissons 
pas  ?  —  Ainsi  la  conscience  fait  de  nous  tons  des 
laches :  —  ainsi  les  couleurs  natives  de  la  reso- 
lution —  blemissent  sous  les  pales  reflets  de  la 
pensee; — ainsi  les  entreprises  les  plus  ener- 
giques  et  les  plus  importantes,  —  se  detournent 
de  leur  cours,  a  cette  idee,  —  et  perdent  le  nom 
d'action."  —  Vol.  III.  Le  Second  Hamlet^  Scene  8, 
p.  239. 

Voltaire's  version  is  clear  and  accurate,  Le 
Tourneur's  feeble  and  inexact,  Hugo's  lacks 
distinction.  No  one  of  the  three  adequately 
represents  the  Hamlet  of  Shakespeare.  It  is 
true  that  this  is  a  passage  of  unusual  depth  and 
difficulty,  and  one  which  has  been  the  delight 
and  despair  of  many  a  student,  actor,  and 
translator.  As  an  example  of  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent kind  may  be  taken  a  passage  of  pure 
love  poetr}^,  the  farewell  of  Romeo  and  Juliet. 
Le  Tourneur  renders  thus  : 

Juliette 

Veux-tu  done,  deja  me  quitter  ?  Le  jour 
est  encore  loin  de  paroitre  :  c'etoit  le  rossignol 
et  non  I'alouette,  dont  la  voix  a  frappe  ton 
oreille  inquiete.     Toute  la  nuit  il  chante  la-bas 


236  PIEKRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

sur  ce  grenadier;  crois-moi  mon  Amant :  c'etoit 
le  rossignol. 

RoMto 

C'etoit  I'alouette  qui  annonce  I'aurore,  et 
non  pas  le  rossignol:  vois,  ma  bien-aimee,  ces 
traits  de  lumiere,  jaloux  de  notre  bonheur,  qui 
percent  ces  nuages  vers  I'Orient :  tons  les  flam- 
beaux de  la  nuit  sont  eteints  ;  et  le  riant  Matin 
sur  la  cime  des  monts  nebuleux,  un  pied  leve,  se 
balance,  pret  k  s'elancer.  II  me  faut  ou  partir 
et  vivre,  ou  rester  et  mourir. 

Juliette 

Non,  cette  clarte  n'est  point  le  jour ;  j'en  suis 
sftre :  c'est  quelque  meteore  qu'exhale  le  Soleil 
pour  te  servir  de  flambeau  cette  nuit,  et  t'eclairer 
dans  ta  route  vers  Mantoue.  Demeure  encore 
un  moment ;  tu  ne  partiras  point  si  t6t. 

RoMfeo 

H4 !  bien !  qu'on  me  surprenne  ici,  qu'on  me 
conduise  a  la  mort :  je  suis  content  si  tu  le  veux 
ainsi.  Je  dirai  comme  toi,  que  cette  lueur  gri- 
satre  n'est  pas  celle  du  matin,  mais  le  pale  reflet 
de  la  Lune,  et  que  ce  n'est  pas  I'alouette  dont 
les  accents  s'elevent  et  vont  frapper  la  voute 


THE  TRANSLATOR   OF  SHAKESPEARE      237 

des  cieux.  Ah !  crois-moi,  j'ai  bien  plus  de  pen- 
chant a  rester,  que  de  volonte  de  partir.  He  I 
bien!  que  la  mort  vienne,  la  mort  sera  la  bien 
venue:  Juliette  le  veut  ainsi.  Qu'en  dis-tu 
mon  amour  ?  AUons,  causons  ensemble :  non, 
ce  n'est  pas  le  jour. 

Juliette 

Ah!  c'est  le  jour,  c'est  le  jour:  pars  de  ces 
lieux,   eloignes-toi,   fuis.     Oui   c'est  I'alouette 
qui  pousse  ces  accents  discords ;  que  sa  voix  est 
aigue  et  son  chant  desagreable !  (x)  Oh  !  pars  ^^'^ 
sans  delai:  la  lumiere  croit  de  plus   en  plus.^ 

EOMEO 

Oui,  la  lumiere  croit  .  .  .  et  nos  maux  vont  ^^ 
croitre  avec  elle. 

—  Vol.  IV.  p.  361,  Romeo  et  Juliette^  Acte 
III.     Scene  f .  S 

1  The  (x)  marks  an  omission  in  Le  Tourneur.     He  trans- 
lates the  omitted  verses  in  a  note  at  the  end  of  the  play, 
(x)  Sc^ne  7,  p.  362. 

"  On  dit  quelquefois  :  I'alouette  fait  une  douce  separation. 
II  n'en  est  pas  de  meme  de  celle-ci ;  car  c'est  elle  qui  nous 
s^pare  aujourd'hui ;  on  dit  aussi  que  I'alouette  et  le  crapaud 
ont  troqu6  d'yeux ;  oh  !  je  voudrois  qu'ils  eussent  aussi 
troqu6  de  voix  aujourd'hui." 

"Allusion  au  proverbes  populaire  sur  les  yeux  hrillants 
du  crapaud  et  les  yeux  ternes  et  petits  de  I'alouette." 


238  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

Hugo's  translation  is  as  follows : 

Juliette 
Veux-tu  done  partir  ?  Le  jour  n'est  pas 
proche  encore:  C'etait  le  rossignol  et  non 
Talouette — dont  la  voix  pergoit  ton  oreille  crain- 
tive.  Toutes  les  nuits  il  chante  sur  le  grenadier, 
la-bas.     Crois-moi,  Amour,  c'etait  le  rossignol. 

Romeo 

C'etait  I'alouette,  la  messagere  du  matin,  —  et 
non  le  rossignol.  Regarde,  Amour,  ces  lueurs 
jalouses  —  qui  dentellent  le  bord  des  nuages  a 
rOrient!  —  Les  flambeaux  de  la  nuitsont  6teints, 
et  le  jour  joyeux  —  se  dresse  sur  la  pointe  du 
pied  au  sommet  brumeux  de  la  montagne.  — Je 
dois  partir  et  vivre,  ou  rester  et  mourir. 
Juliette 

Cette  clarte  la  bas  n'est  pas  la  clarte  du  jour, 
je  le  sais  bien,  moi ;  —  c'est  quelque  meteore  que 
le  soleil  exhale  —  pour  te  servir  de  torche  cette 
nuit  et  eclairer  ta  marche  vers  Mantoue.  Reste 
done,  tu  n'as  pas  besoin  de  partir  encore. 

Romeo 
Soit!   qu'on  me   prenne,    qu'on   me  mette  a 
mort. — Je  suis  content,  si   tu    le   veux   ainsi. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE       239 

—  Non,  cette  lueur  grise  n'est  pas  le  regard  du 

matin  —  elle  n'est  que  le  pale  reflet  du  front  de 

Cynthia;  —  et  ce  n'est  pas  I'alouette  qui  frappe 

de  notes  si  hautes  la  votite  du  ciel  au-dessus  de 

nos  tetes.     J'ai  plus  le  desir  de  rester  que  la 

volonte  de  partir.  —  Vienne  la  mort,  et  elle  sera 

la  bienvenue.  .  .  .  Ainsi  le  veut  Juliette.  .  .  . 

Comment    etes-vous,    mon   ame  ?     Causons,   il 

n'est  pas  jour. 

Juliette 

C'est  le  jour,  c'est  le  jour !     Fuis   vita,   va- 
t-en, pars.  —  C'est  I'alouette  qui  detonne  ainsi, 

—  et  qui  lance  ces  notes  rauques,  ces  strettes 

deplaisantes.  —  On  dit  que  I'alouette  prolonge 

si  doucement  les  accords;  cela  n'est  pas,  car  elle 

rompt  le  notre.  —  On  dit,  que  I'alouette  et  le 

hideux  crapaud  ont  change  d'yeux.  —  Oh !  que 

n'ont-ils  aussi  change  de  voix,  —  puisque  cette 

voix  nous  arrache  effares  I'un  a  I'autre  —  et  te 

chasse  d'ici  par   son   hourvari   matinal !  —  Oh ! 

maintenant,  pars.     Le  jour  est  de  plus  en  plus 

clair. 

Romeo 

De  plus  en  plus  clair.   .  .  .  De  plus  en  plus 
sombre  est  notre  malheur. 

—  F.  V.  Hugo,  Vol.  YII.  p.  314. 


240  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

It  is  easy  to  find  fault  with  Le  Tourneur's 
translation,  and  a  detailed  study  of  his  render- 
ing of  the  individual  plays  confirms  the  first 
impression.  It  is  often  inaccurate  and  inade- 
quate. It  contains  omissions,  amplifications,  and 
changes  of  the  original  text.  Its  style  is  fre- 
quently grandiloquent  and  bombastic  where  it 
should  be  dignified  and  simple,  indistinct  and 
elegant  where  it  should  be  clear-cut  and  force- 
ful. Nevertheless,  it  has  virtues  which  atone  for 
its  many  and  serious  defects.  It  presents  Shake- 
speare in  his  entirety  for  the  first  time  in  French, 
with  an  adequate  introduction  of  literary  appre- 
ciation. It  is  made  with  a  conscientious  effort  at 
_exactness  and  a  scrupulous  care,  which,  however 
far  from  attaining  their  end,  should  excite  the 
respect  and  indulgence  of  modern  scholarship. 
It  catches  and  preserves  again  and  again  some- 
thing of  Shakespeare's  atmosphere  and  spirit. 
And  as,  with  all  its  inaccuracies,  Florio's  trans- 
lation of  Montaigne  is  preferred  by  many  to 
the  more  exact  and  modern  renderings,  so,  this 
eighteenth-century  translation  of  Shakespeare, 
with  all  its  mistakes  and  frequent  bombast  is,  in 
some  respects,  nearer  the  spirit  of  the  original  than 
the  more  literal  interpretations  of  later  scholars. 


THE   TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE       241 

As  in  the  case  of  Les  Nuits  cfYoung^  and  of 
the  Poesies  cf  Ossian,  Le  Tourneur's  translation 
of  Shakespeare  soon  became  the  standard,  and 
remained,  indeed,  the  only  complete  version  of 
the  English  poet  until  well  on  into  the  nine- 
teenth century.  A  new  edition  was  brought 
out  in  1821,  revised  and  corrected  by  Guizot,^ 
and  a  third,  the  following  year,  edited  by 
Avenel.2  Twelve  years  later  Havard  edited 
it  with  the  works  of  Schiller,^  and  in  1899  it 
was  reprinted  by  Charles  Vogel  for  an  edition 
of  Shakespeare  made  for  the  Bon  Marche,'^  with 
the  remark  in  the  preface  that  this  translation 
seemed  the  best  to  the  editor,  and  he  therefore 
intended  to  use  it,  despite  the  criticisms  of 
other  translators  who  sought  to  discredit  it  in 

1  Shakespeare,  (Euvres  completes  traduites  par  Le  Tour- 
neur.  Nouvelle  Edition,  revue  et  corrig^e  par  F.  Guizot  et 
A.  P.  (Pichot),  traducteur  de  Lord  Byron.  Paris,  1821,  13 
vols,  in  8vo. 

2  (Euvres  de  Shakespeare,  traduites  de  1' anglais  par  Le 
Tourneur.  Nouvelle  Edition  corrigfie  et  enrichie  de  notes  de 
divers  commentateurs  sur  chaque  pi^ce,  par  M.  Avenel. 
Paris,  1822,  12  vols. 

8  (Euvres  dramatiques  de  Shakespeare,  traduites  de  I'an- 
glais,  par  Le  Tourneur.  Nouvelle  Edition.  Paris,  1834,  2 
vols,  in  8vo. 

*  Shakespeare,  revue  de  la  traduction  de  Le  Tourneur, 
par  Charles  Vogel,  Paris,  1899. 


242  PIERRE  LE   TOURNEUR 

order  to  advance  their  own  work.  This  un- 
qualified approbation  was  the  general  feeling  of 
the  eighteenth-century  press  in  regard  to  Le 
Tourneur's  work.  With  the  exception  of  the 
partizan  attacks  of  the  Journal  Politique  ^  and 
the  Mercure  ^  the  translator  was  praised  for  the 
beauty  and  energy  of  his  style  and  for  his  fidel- 
ity to  Shakespeare.  For  this  last  quality,  in- 
deed, he  was  even  gently  censured,  as  well  as 
for  hazarding  too  bold  and  too  inelegant  ex- 
pressions.^ By  succeeding  translators,  however, 
he  was  treated  with  much  greater  severity,  and 
M.  Beljame,*  in  particular,  cannot  forgive  such 
expressions  as  "determine  comme  un  rat  sans 
queue."  —  Macbeth^  Act  I.  Scene  3. 
r^^But  in  any  judgment  of  this  fii*st  translation 
of  Shakespeare  it  must  be  remembered,  not  only 
that  it  was  pioneer  work,  and  thus  liable  to  the 
imperfections  of  all  first  attempts,  but  that  an 
exact,   literal   translation   of    Shakespeare   was 

1  Journal  de  Politique  et  de  Litth'atiire,  1776,  Vol.  I.  p. 
43;  Vol.  II.  p.  597.  1777,  Vol.  111.  p.  531,  1778,  Vol.  I. 
p.  25,  96,  160,  etc. 

2  Mercure  de  France,  May,  1781 ;  July,  1782. 
8  Annee  Litteraire,  1786,  Vol  II. 

*  Macbeth,  texte  critique,  par  A.  Beljame,  Paris,  1897. 
The  Introduction  contains  a  very  severe  appreciation  of  Le 
Tourneur. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE      243 

neither  thought  of  nor  desired.  Its  value  lies 
not  in  its  intrinsic  merit  as  a  translation,  but  in 
the  fact  of  its  existence,  in  its  immediate  effects 
upon  the  French  people,  and  in  its  later  influence 
upon  the  stage.  Le  Tourneur  knew  his  public 
and  his  time.  He  dared  to  do  what  no  one  be- 
fore him  had  ventured  and  what  no  one  after 
him  attempted  for  over  forty  years.  His  trans- 
lation did  its  work.  It  made  the  French 
acquainted  with  Shakespeare,  it  aroused  interest 
in  him  and  his  work,  and  its  influence  was  an 
important  factor  in  the  later  development  of 
French  drama.  These  services  alone  should  be 
enough  to  atone  for  many  imperfections  and 
mistakes,  and  to  secure  for  Le  Tourneur  the  in- 
dulgence and  gratitude  of  the  modern  student. 
The  discussion  carried  on  in  the  different 
periodicals  during  the  publication  of  the  trans- 
lation had  its  effect.  Imitators  and  commen- 
tators came  forward  to  express  their  opinions 
and  to  demonstrate  their  approval  or  disapproval 
of  Shakespeare's  dramatic  methods.  Ducis  con- 
tinued his  adaptations  with  Le  roi  Lear  in  1783, 
Macbeth  in  1784,  Jean  sans  Terre  in  1791,  and 
Othello  in  1792,  and  by  a  singular  irony  of  fate 
replaced  Voltaire  in   the  Academy  of  the  Im- 


244  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

mortals.  Sedaine,  who  read  with  eagerness  and 
delight  the  translation  of  Le  Tourneur  as  fast 
as  it  appeared,  could  talk  of  nothing  else,  and 
his  enthusiasm  called  forth  the  often-quoted  re- 
mark of  Grimm :  "  Vos  transports  ne  me  sur 
prennent  point,  c'est  la  joie  d'un  fils  qui  retrouve 
un  pere  qu'il  n'a  jamais  vu.''^  Mercier,  wlio 
had  been  one  of  the  first  and  most  enthusiastic  ad- 
mirers of  Shakespeare  and  who  had  already  pro- 
posed certain  bold  reforms  in  the  French  drama 
in  his  Essai  sur  VArt  Dramatique  of  1773,  con- 
tinued his  efforts  by  attempting  to  put  his 
theories  into  practice  in  Timon  d'Athenes  (1794).^ 
After  the  death  of  Voltaire,  his  campaign  against 
Shakespeare  was  carried  on  by  Marmontel, 
d'Alembert,  La  Harpe,  and  Marie  Joseph 
Chenier,  who  supported  fiercely  the  rules  and 
methods  of  the  classic  French  drama  in  theory 
and  in  practice,  and  only  grudgingly  accorded 
a  few  sparks  of  genius  to  the  English  poet.     The 

1  Auger,  Notice  sur  Sedaine  in  his  (Euvres^  Paris,  1813, 
Vol.  I.  p.  xi. 

2  Other  imitators  of  Shakespeare  at  this  period  were  Le- 
gouv6,  whose  J^picharis  et  Neron  (1793)  echoed  Act  V.  of 
Bichard  IIL^  D^jaur^,  whose  Imogenea  on  la  Gageure  indis- 
crete (1796)  imitated  Cymbeline^  Bertini  in  Othello,  1785, 
De  Rozoi  in  his  Ehapsodie  de  Bichard  III.,  1782. 


THE  TKANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE      245 

general  feeling  towards  the  end  of  the  century 
of  the  more  enlightened  partizans  of  Shakespeare 
is  well  expressed  by  Freron  in  the  Annee  LittS- 
raire, 

"Les  ouvrages  inspires  par  le  genie,  quel- 
ques  defauts  qui  les  defigurent,  ont  toujours 
un  grand  avantage  sur  les  productions  froides 
et  polies  de  I'esprit.  lis  offrent  des  idees 
neuves  et  originales,  des  choses  hardies  et 
sublimes;  on  y  rencontre  partout  les  traits 
d'une  imagination  libre  et  vigoureuse  qui  cree, 
qui  invente,  et  s'elance  au  dela  des  bornes 
prescrites.  Des  beautes  de  ce  genre  rachetent 
bien  des  absurd ites,  et  sont  beaucoup  plus  utiles 
au  progres  de  I'art  que  les  ecrits  mediocres,  qui 
n'ont  d'autre  merite  qu'une  forme  reguliere,  un 
tour  elegant  et  delicieux.  Une  seule  scene  de 
Shakespeare  eclaire  plus  un  artiste  que  cette 
foule  de  tragedies  ou  toutes  les  regies  sont 
observees  scrupuleusement  hors  la  plus  essen- 
tielle,  qui  est  d'interesser  et  de  plaire.  Je 
ne  pretends  pas  justifier  les  irregularites  mon- 
strueuses  du  poete  Anglois ;  mais  ses  pieces 
quelque  bizarres  qu'elles  soient,  presentent  aux 
ecrivains  qui  ont  plus  de  gout  que  d'invention, 
un  repertoire  immense  de  carac teres  et  de  situa- 


246  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

tions  vraiment  tragiques.  Ces  materiaux  pre- 
cieux  mis  en  oeuvre  par  une  main  habile  pour- 
roient  enrichir  notre  theatre,  dans  un  temps  sur- 
tout  ou  nos  auteurs  dramatiques  se  plaignent 
qu'ils  sont  venus  trop  tard,  et  que  tons  les  su- 
jets  sont  epuises.  La  traduction  de  Shakespeare 
envisagee  sous  ce  point  de  vue,  a  done  un 
objet  d'utilite  tres  considerable,  et  pent  etre 
regardee  comme  une  ressource  contre  la  sterilite 
et  la  disette  qui  affligent  depuis  longtemps  la 
scene  Frangoise  "  {AnnSe  LittSraire^  1778,  Vol. 
VII.  p.  73.)  Even  Mme.  de  Stael,  so  enthusias- 
tic about  northern  poetry,  found  Shakespeare 
often  lacking  in  taste,  though  she  recognized 
and  boldly  declared  his  power  and  beauty  as  a 
dramatist.  "  Depuis  les  Grecs  jusqu'a  lui,  nous 
voyons  toutes  les  litteratures  deriver  les  unes 
des  autres,  en  partant  de  la  meme  source. 
Shakespeare  commence  une  litterature  nouvelle ; 
il  est  empreint  sans  doute,  de  I'esprit  et  de  la 
couleur  generale  des  poesies  du  Nord,  mais  c'est 
lui  qui  a  donne  h,  la  litterature  des  Anglais 
son  impulsion,  et  a  leur  art  dramatique  son 
caractere."  ^  In  her  intelligent  and  sympa- 
thetic   study    of    Shakespeare,    she    counseled 

1  De  la  Litterature,  1800,  Chap.  III. 


THE  TRANSLATOR   OF   SHAKESPEARE      247 

reform  in  the  French  drama,  and  the  imitation 
of  his  freedom  from  restraint  of  rules  and 
fidelity  to  life.  Yet,  far  from  exalting  him 
to  the  skies  with  the  unreasoning  adoration  of 
some  of  his  early  admirers,  she  proposed  a 
reasonable  medium  between  both  systems  of 
composition.! 

Thus,  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  even  the  most  enlightened  opinion 
concerning  Shakespeare  was  not  essentially 
very  different  from  that  expressed  by  Voltaire 
half  a  century  before.  Shakespeare  has  no 
taste ;  he  has  no  regard  for  the  unities ;  he 
mingles  the  comic  and  the  tragic  in  the  same 
drama ;  he  introduces  scenes  of  violence  and 
characters  of  the  lower  classes,  he  makes  each 
character  speak  as  befits  him,  and  not  according 
to  the  dignity  and  nobility  suited  to  tragedy. 
But  with  all  these  defects  he  is  a  great  genius 
of  unquestioned  power  and  inimitable  beauties. 
His  faults  are  those  of  his  time.     He  lived  in  a 

1  De  la  Litterature,  Chap.  XIII.  Des  Tragedies  de  Shake- 
speare, 3d  edition,  1818,  Vol.  I.  p.  522. 

"  Enfin,  pour  ouvrir  une  nouvelle  source  d'^motions  th^- 
atrales,  il  faudrait  trouver  le  genre  interm^diaire  entre  la 
nature  de  convention  des  pontes  frangais  et  les  dSfauts  de 
gofit  des  Scrivains  du  Nord." 


248  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

rough  and  barbarous  age,  and  wrote  to  please 
an  uncultivated  people.  Chateaubriand,  one  of 
the  last  ardent  supporters  of  the  classic  ideal, 
compared  him  to  a  Gothic  cathedral,  which  may- 
please  by  the  very  deformity  of  its  proportions, 
but  which  no  one  would  think  of  imitating  as  a 
model  of  architecture.^ 

From  1800  to  1820  the  question  of  the  re- 
spective merits  of  the  two  dramatic  systems  was 
still  discussed  by  Geoffroy,  ^  Lemercier,  ^  Mme. 
de  Stael  and  Ch.  de  Remusat.*  In  1821 
Guizot's  new  and  revised  edition  of  Le  Tour- 
neur's  translation  and  his  remarkable  preface  ^ 
showed  that  a  revolution  was  at  hand.  Critics 
and  imitators  of  Shakespeare  followed  thick 
and   fast ;    and  such   works  as  Stendhal's   de- 

1  Essai  sur  Shakespeare,  1801,  in  (Euvres  completes  1836, 
Vol.  VIII.  p.  66.  Melanges  litt6raires  :  "  un  monument  goth- 
ique  pent  plaire  par  son  obscurity  et  par  la  difformit6  mgme 
de  ses  proportions  mais  personne  ne  songe  h,  b&tir  un  palais 
Bur  son  module." 

2  Journal  des  Dehats,  Gouts  de  lUUrature  dramatiquei 
Paris,  1819. 

*  Dramas  and  Prefaces,  Cours  analytique  de  littirature 
generale.     Cours  de  litterature  dramatique. 

*  Bevolution  du  Thecltre^  1820 ;  reprinted  in  PassS  et  Pre- 
sent, M61anges,  Paris,  1847. 

*  Shakespeare,  (Euvres,  traduites  par  Le  Tourneur,  revues 
par  Guizot,  Paris,  1821,  13  vols. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF  SHAKESPEARE      249 

tailed  study  of  Racine  and  Shakespeare,^  trans- 
lations of  separate  plays,  and  the  utterances  of 
such  men  as  Alfred  de  Vigny,  Victor  Hugo, 
Sainte  Beuve,  and  Lamartine  prepared  the  way 
for  the  revolutionary  theories  of  dramatic  art  in 
the  preface  to  Cromwell  in  1827.  The  great 
change  in  taste,  so  long  and  slow  in  coming,  had 
at  last  arrived.  Hernani  (1830),  and  Marion 
Delorme  (1831),  were  played  and  welcomed. 
The  pendulum  of  public  opinion  in  favor  of 
Shakespeare  swung  completely  round,  and  under 
the  influence  of  the  Romantic  Movement,  he 
became  the  "  god  of  the  theater." 

In  1829  Alfred  de  Vigny 's  translation  of 
Othello  was  performed  at  the  Theatre  Frangais, 
and  in  the  same  year  Emile  Deschamp's  Etudes 
Poetiques  Franpaises  et  Etrangeres  supported 
and  developed  the  ideas  and  theories  promul- 
gated by  Vigny  and  Hugo.  Imitations,  trans- 
lations, and  critical  studies  multiplied  rapidly. 
Chateaubriand,  somewhat  converted  from  his 
earlier  opinion,  devoted  a  long  article  to  Shake- 
speare in  his  essay  on  English  literature  in  1836. ^ 

1  JRacine  et  Shakespeare,  par  Stendhal,  Paris,  1823. 

2  Chateaubriand,  (Euvres  completes,  Paris,  1837,  Vols. 
XXXIII  and  XXXIV. 


250  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

George  Sand  translated  As  You  Like  It  and  made 
a  study  of  Hamlet;'^  Stapfer  investigated  Shake- 
speare's relation  to  the  Ancients ;  ^  Mezieres^ 
and  Lamartine^  devoted  entire  volumes  to  his 
life  and  works  ;  Lacroix,  Jusserand,  and  Louns- 
bury  studied  his  appreciation  and  influence  in 
France.  Meantime  modern  and  complete  trans- 
lations have  not  been  wanting.  Revised  edi- 
tions of  Le  Tourneur's  rendering  appeared  in 
1821,  1822,  and  1834.  A  new  and  complete 
version  by  Francisque  Michel^  was  published  in 
1839,  and  another  by  Benjamin  Laroche^  in 
1844.  FrauQois  Victor  Hugo"  produced  a  third 
in  1859,  and  the  latest,  that  of  ^tmile  Mon- 
tegut,8  is  of  1867.9 

1  George  Sand,  Comme  il  vous  plaira,  1856. 

2  Stapfer,  Paul,  Shakespeare  et  VAntiquite,  Paris,  1879- 
1880. 

8  M6zi6res,  Alf,  Shakespeare,  sa  Vie  et  ses  (Euvres, 
Paris,  1860. 

*  Lamartine,  Shakespeare  et  son  (Euvre,  Paris,  1865. 

^  Shakespeare,  (Euvres,  traduites  par  M.  Michel,  Paris, 
1839. 

**  Shakespeare,  (Euvres  completes,  traduites  par  Benjamin 
Laroclie,  Paris,  1844. 

''  Shakespeare,  (Euvres  completes,  traduites  par  F.  V. 
Hugo,  I'aris,  1859. 

8  Shakespeare,  (Euvres  completes,  traduites  par  6mile 
Mont6gut,  Paris,  1867. 

»  As  this  essay  was  going  to  press  the  attention  of  the 


THE  TRANSLATOR  OF   SHAKESPEARE      251 

The  war  was  practically  over  by  1840. 
Shakespeare  had  at  last  found  a  home  in  France 
and  has  now  his  place  on  the  French  stage. ^ 
He  is  no  longer  considered  a  rough  and  uncouth 
barbarian,  but  is  welcomed  as  an  honored  and 
respected  guest.  Nevertheless,  he  is,  and  must 
continue  to  be,  a  stranger,  alien  in  blood,  opposed 
in  feeling  and  expression  to  the  tradition  of  the 
Latin  races.  There  is  now  no  discussion  as  to 
his  merit  or  his  taste ;  his  dramatic  methods  are 
no  longer  questioned  ;  his  effect  upon  the  French 
drama  is  undoubted.     In  helping  to  free  it  from 

writer  was  called  to  the  announcement  of  a  new  translation 
of  Shakespeare  :  (Euvres  dramatiques  de  William  Shake- 
speare :  traduction  nouvelle,  entierement  conforme  au  texte 
anglais,  avec  annotations,  par  Georges  Duval,  8  vols.,  Paris, 
1908. 

1  Among  the  more  modern  adaptations  of  Shakespeare  for 
the  stage  may  be  noted  :  Hamlet  by  Paul  Meurice  and  Alex- 
andre Dumas  (1847),  in  which  Mounet  Sully  achieved  one 
of  his  great  triumphs  at  the  Theatre  Fran^aise  ;  Macbeth  and 
Le  roi  Lear,  by  Jules  Lacroix,  performed  at  the  Theatre  de 
L'Od^on  in  1863  and  1888  ;  Othello,  by  Jean  Aicard  (1881), 
Le  Conte  d''Avril  (founded  on  Twelfth  Night),  by  Auguste 
Dorchain  (1885);  illfac?)e«7i,  by  Jean  Richepin,  Porte-Saint 
Martin  (1884)  ;  Shylock,  by  Edmond  Haraucourt  (1890), 
and  La  Megere  apprivoisee  by  Paul  Delain  (1894).  Sarah 
Bernhardt's  impersonation  of  Hamlet  is  still  a  recent  mem- 
ory, and  the  summer  of  1907  witnessed  repeated  perform- 
ances before  crowded  houses  at  the  Theatre  de  I'Od^on,  of 
a  version  of  King  Lear  by  Pierre  Loti. 


252  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

the  fetters  of  classicism,  in  giving  it  new  life, 
and  in  enlarging  its  boundaries,  his  influence 
was  a  factor  of  importance  in  the  history  of  the 
development  of  dramatic  taste  and  art.  For  the 
acceleration  of  this  change,  Le  Tourneur,  by- 
giving  to  France  the  first  complete  translation 
of  Shakespeare,  by  his  keen  insight  and  apprecia- 
tion, and  by  his  thorough  and  conscientious 
work,  must  be  held  in  no  small  degree  respon- 
sible. 


VI.    CONCLUSION 

The  way  of  the  translator,  like  that  of  the 
transgressor,  is  apt  to  be  hard.  His  is  an  obscure 
and  thankless  task.  His  work  rarely  satisfies 
either  the  friends  of  his  author  or  the  critics  of  his 
own  nation.  His  translation  may  be  used  and 
widely  known  and  it  is  proportionately  abused. 
If  he  himself  is  remembered  at  all,  it  is  generally 
for  his  vices,  not  his  virtues.  His  preparation  is 
arduous,  his  labor  difficult,  his  glory  and  recog- 
nition small.  He  must  understand  his  author, 
know  him  thoroughly,  sympathize  with  him. 
Like  an  actor,  he  must  sink  his  own  personality 
as  far  as  possible  and  represent  him  conscien- 
tiously, appropriately,  and  adequately,  in  spirit 
and  in  speech.  In  the  beginning  he  is  beset  by 
serious  difficulties.  If  he  translates  literally  and 
word  for  word,  he  renders  the  sense  and  loses 
the  spirit  of  his  original ;  if  freely,  he  is  accused 
of  inaccuracy  or  ignorance.  Whatever  his  method, 
however  great  his  care,  he  finds  the  standard  of 
perfection  retreating  before  him  as  he  advances, 
253 


254  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

and  himself  assailed  by  the  critic  alike  for  what 
he  did  and  for  what  he  did  not  do.  His  work 
may  be  poor  or  excellent,  it  may  or  may  not  ac- 
complish its  end ;  in  either  case,  the  translator 
himself  generally  sinks  into  obscurity ;  his  per- 
sonality, his  years  of  effort  and  labor  are  for- 
gotten. 

This  fate  has  overtaken  Pierre  Le  Tourneur. 
To  most,  he  is  but  a  name,  — the  translator  of 
Young,  Ossian,  and  Shakespeare.  He  and  his 
works  are  alike  buried  in  the  darkness  of  oblivion 
which  is  penetrated  only  by  the  inquiring  stu- 
dent and  scholar.  Even  when  these  curious 
and  hardy  adventurers  into  the  mysterious 
land  of  dead  and  forgotten  writers  have  roused 
him  from  his  long  slumber,  it  has  been,  generally, 
to  greet  him  with  unsparing  criticism  on  his 
work,  tempered  with  condescending  indulgence 
for  himself.  His  work,  as  a  whole,  has  been 
characterized  as  "bad,"  "poor,"  "mediocre." 
He  has  been  accused  of  timidity  and  lack  of 
initiative,  of  carelessness  and  infidelity  in  his 
translations,  of  bombast  and  grandiloquence  in 
his  style,  of  ignorance  of  the  English  tongue. 
But  he  deserves  more  indulgent  treatment  at  the 
hands  of  posterity  and  merits  a  better  fate  than 


CONCLUSION  255 

that  which  has  befallen  him.  The  qualities  of 
his  life  and  work  which  make  him  worthy  of 
being  rescued  from  oblivion  have  already  been 
suggested  in  the  foregoing  pages.  It  will  be 
sufficient  here  to  summarize  them  very  briefly. 

Le  Tourneur's  importance  and  interest  in  the 
history  of  literature  lie  in  three  things :  in  his 
work,  in  his  ideas,  and  in  his  personality.  His 
work,  as  has  been  seen,  consists  of  original  essays 
and  of  translations.  The  former,  while  graceful 
and  promising  attempts,  are  too  slight  to  have 
any  great  influence  upon  his  final  reputation. 
Nevertheless,  they  won  him  a  place  in  public 
esteem  and  thus  prepared  the  way  for  a  favorable 
reception  of  his  later  work.  He  is  known  to-day, 
and  rightly,  as  a  translator.  By  his  translations 
of  Young,  Hervey,  and  Ossian  he  introduced  to 
France  the  English  School  of  the  literature  of 
melancholy  which  did  much  to  accelerate  and 
increase  the  influence  of  the  Romantic  Move- 
ment. His  rendering  of  Shakespeare  made 
known  for  the  first  time  tlie  English  poet  to  the 
French  people,  established  for  him  a  firm  foot- 
hold in  France,  and  powerfully  affected  the  future 
development  of  the  French  drama.  His  minor 
translations  furthered  still  more  the  cause  of 


256  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

literary  cosmopolitanism  by  extending  the  knowl- 
edge of  foreign  literature,  and  stimulating  in- 
terest in  the  productions  of  other  nations. 

Like  many  another  workman  for  posterity,  Le 
Tourneur  builded  better  than  he  knew.  He  was 
not  only  a  translator,  but,  what  was  perhaps  more 
important  at  the  time,  an  interpreter  of  literature. 
He  possessed,  in  a  rare  degree,  the  power  of  ap- 
preciation ;  he  had  a  breadth  of  view,  a  tolerance, 
a  clear  and  keen  judgment,  far  in  advance  of 
most  other  critics  of  his  age.  These  very  gifts 
enabled  him  to  understand  his  public  and  the 
temper  of  the  time  in  which  he  lived.  He 
realized  clearly  what  he  could  and  what  he  could 
not  venture  in  the  way  of  literary  initiative.  He 
had,  moreover,  the  editor's  instinct  of  selection 
and  arrangement,  and  the  insight  and  the  skill 
to  present  a  literature  entirely  opposed  in 
thought,  in  taste,  and  in  expression  to  his  own, 
in  such  a  way  that  it  was  acceptable  and  pleas- 
ing to  his  countrymen.  His  translations  are  of 
value,  not  because  of  their  intrinsic  merit,  but 
because  of  what  they  represent :  the  first  be- 
ginnings of  a  phase  of  cosmopolitanism  which 
was  later  to  become  a  mighty  influence  in  Euro- 
pean literature.     Like  beauty,  their  existence  is 


CONCLUSION  257 

their  own  excuse  for  being.  Viewed  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  modern  scholar,  they  are  very 
unsatisfactory  as  translations,  and  most  of  the 
criticisms  passed  upon  them  are  just.  They  are 
sometimes  poor,  often  inaccurate,  they  have 
many  sins  of  omission  and  commission  in  the 
way  of  liberties  taken  with  the  text,  and  yet, 
they  do  catch  and  reflect  the  essential  spirit  and 
atmosphere  of  their  originals.  A  large  part  of 
their  worth  lies  in  their  very  imperfections. 
They  did  their  work,  they  fulfilled  their  purpose. 
They  made  known  to  the  French  people  the 
English  authors  they  tried  to  represent.  It  is, 
indeed,  a  question  whether  an  accurate  and  com- 
plete rendering  would  have  brought  about  the 
same  results ;  whether,  if  presented,  then,  in 
their  entirety.  Young,  Ossian,  and  Shakespeare 
would  have  been  welcomed,  or  even  received,  in 
France;  whether,  in  short,  the  change  in  taste 
would  have  taken  place  when  and  as  it  did,  and 
finally,  whether  the  development  of  literary 
cosmopolitanism  would  not  have  been  percepti- 
bly retarded. 

Le  Tourneur,  however,  was  more  than  a  trans- 
lator and  interpreter.  By  the  novelty  and  bold- 
ness of  his  ideas,  he  belongs  to  the  ranks  of 


258  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

theorists  and  innovators.  The  fact  of  his  un- 
dertaking and  completing  entire  translations 
of  these  alien  poets  shows  an  appreciation  and 
judgment  beyond  that  of  most  of  his  contem- 
poraries. It  is  true  that  in  so  doing  he  was 
merely  following  the  fashion  of  the  hour,  the  rage 
for  everything  English  which  had  taken  posses- 
sion of  France.  But  where  most  people  were 
content  with  little  or  no  accurate  knowledge,  he 
made  an  attempt  at  something  like  a  scholarly 
and  complete  treatment  of  his  subject.  Unlike 
the  greater  part  of  his  countrymen  he  under- 
stood his  authors,  and  appreciated  the  value  of 
his  own  work  in  introducing  them  to  his  coun- 
try. In  his  prefaces,  above  all,  he  gave  expres- 
sion to  his  new  theories  and  startling  ideas.  He 
revealed  to  France,  in  the  first  place,  a  sane 
and  sensible  view  of  literature,  and  suggested  a 
liberal  tolerance  with  respect  to  standards  of 
taste  and  excellence  different  from  those  of 
generally  accepted  tradition.  He  spoke  against 
a  slavish  adherence  to  the  unities,  and  a  blind 
and  hampering  obedience  to  rules.  He  pro- 
claimed the  independence  and  the  power  of 
genius,  the  vitality  and  naturalness  of  the  Eng- 
lish stage,  the   good   effects   of   mingling   the 


CONCLUSION  259 

comic  and  the  tragic,  of  taking  subjects  from 
all  classes  of  men,  of  making  each  character 
speak  a  language  appropriate  to  himself.  He 
protested  against  the  tyranny  of  criticism  and 
tradition,  against  the  pettiness  and  narrowness 
of  critics  who  try  to  measure  everything  by 
their  own  small  capacity  and  rule.  He  pleaded 
for  breadth  of  view  in  literature,  declaring 
boldly  that  France  was  not  the  only  nation 
endowed  with  genius,  and  that  perfection  was 
not  confined  within  her  boundaries.  He  urged 
the  development  of  cosmopolitanism,  the  utility 
of  exchange  in  literature  as  well  as  in  commerce. 
He  was  the  first  to  use  and  to  define  the  word 
romantique^  which  has  since  become  an  ordinary 
term  in  literary  speech.  These  ideas  and 
theories,  regarded  by  his  contemporaries  as 
startling  and  chimerical  innovations  destined  to 
work  havoc  in  the  perfection  of  classic  drama, 
and  to  bring  ruin  and  destruction  upon  the 
stage,  have  since  been  accepted  without  ques- 
tion as  commonplaces  of  literary  criticism  and 
structure.  But  such  a  change  as  made  this 
acceptance  possible  did  not  take  place  without 
a  struggle,  and  Le  Tourneur,  as  one  of  the 
pioneers  in  the  campaign,  bore  the  brunt  of 


260  PIERRE  LE  TOURNEUR 

the  battle  and  was  responsible  for  much  of  the 
progress  made. 

His  share  and  influence  in  the  great  evolu- 
tion and  expansion  of  taste  which  was  going  on 
at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  due, 
in  part,  to  his  personal  qualities  and  attributes. 
Throughout  his  life  he  was  known  to  be  of 
blameless  character  and  spotless  reputation. 
He  had  many  friends  and  few  enemies.  He 
was  recognized  as  an  original  writer  of  marked 
ability,  as  a  critic  of  sound  judgment,  keen  in- 
sight, just  appreciation,  and  unquestioned  good 
taste.  His  opinions  were  listened  to  with  re- 
spect, and  his  work  received  with  approbation. 
He  was  known  to  be  thorough  and  conscien- 
tious, free  from  envy,  malice,  and  ambition,  seek- 
ing only  as  his  reward  the  consciousness  of  work 
well  done.  Under  the  fire  of  abuse  and  perse- 
cution which  the  novelty  of  his  work  and  the 
hardihood  of  his  ideas  brought  upon  him,  he 
stood  firm  and  resolute,  completing  his  task 
with  quiet  dignity,  calm  persistence,  and  una- 
bated energy,  and  trusting,  with  unshaken  faith, 
to  the  value  of  his  work  as  his  only  vindication 
and  his  sole  revenge.  His  insight  was  not  mis- 
taken nor  his  confidence  misplaced.     His  work 


CONCLUSION  261 

stood  the  test  and  his  efforts  were  justified  by 
the  results.  He  did  his  work  thoroughly  and 
well,  and  left  behind  him  translations  which 
became  the  standard,  ideas  and  theories  destined 
to  aid  in  the  revolution  of  taste  and  dramatic 
structure,  and  the  memory  of  a  gracious  and 
pleasing  personality.  Of  Pierre  Le  Tourneur, 
who  introduced  Young,  Ossian,  and  Shakespeare 
into  France,  whose  work  accelerated  materially 
the  slow  but  inevitable  march  of  the  Romantic 
Movement,  whose  keen  judgment  and  just  ap- 
preciation did  much  for  the  spread  of  cosmopoli- 
tanism and  literary  civilization,  whose  personal 
charm  impressed  all  who  knew  him,  it  may  be 
said  with  Antony  of  Brutus  : 

"  His  life  was  gentle  ;  and  the  elements 
So  mixed  in  him,  that  Nature  might  stand  up, 
And  say  to  all  the  world,  This  was  a  man  !  " 


APPENDIX  A 

CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  LE  TOURNEUR'S 
WORKS 

1766.    l&loge  de  Clairaut. 

in  Necrologie  des  hommes  cdlebres  de  France, 
Paris,  1766. 

1768.  Discours  Moraux  couronnes  par  les  Academies  de 

Montauban  et  de  Besan9on  en  1766  et  1767  avec 
un  Eloge  de  Charles  V.,  Roi  de  France,  par 
M^xx.     Sens  et  Paris.     176  pp. 

1769.  La  Jeune  Fille  Seduite  et  Le  Courtisan  Ermite, 

contes  traduits  de  I'Anglois  par  M.  Le  Tour- 
neur.     50  pp. 

1769.  Les  nuits  d' Young,  traduites  de  I'anglois  par  Le 

Tourneur.     Paris.     2  vols,  in  8vo.  et  in  12mo. 

1770.  (Euvres  diverses  d'Yoiing,  traduites  de  I'anglois 

par  Le  Tourneur.     Paris.     2  vols,  in  8vo. 

1770.  Meditations  d'Hervey,  traduites  de  I'anglois  par 

Le  Tourneur.     Paris.     8vo. 

1771.  Histoire  de  Richard  Savage,  suivie  de  la  Vie  de 

Thomson,  traduites  de  I'anglois,  par  M.  Le 
Tourneur.     400  pp.  12mo. 

1771.  Histoire  du  regne  de  I'empereur  Charles  Quint, 
precedee  d'un  tableau  des  progres  de  la  Society 
en  Europe,  traduite  de  I'anglois.  6  vols,  in 
12mo.     (Vols.  Ill  et  IV  are  by  Le  Tourneur.) 

1771.  Choix  de  Contes  et  de  Poesies  erses,  traduits  par 
Pierre  Le  Tourneur.  Paris.  2  vols,  in  12mo. 
263 


264  APPENDIX  A 

1776-83.     Shakespeare,   traduit  de   I'anglois,   dedid    au 
Roi.     20  vols,  in  8vo. 

1777.  Ossian,  fils  de  Fingal  poesies  galliques,  traduites 

siir  I'anglois  de  Macpherson  par  Le  Tourneur. 
Paris.     2  vols,  in  Svo. 

1778.  Eloge   du   Marechal  du  Muy  par  Le  Tourneur. 

Paris.     178  pp. 

1779.  Vue  de  I'^vidence  de  la  Religion  Chrdtienne,  con- 

sideree  en  elle-meme,  traduite  de  I'anglois  par 
M.  Le  Tourneur. 
1784.     Le  Sylphe,  traduit  de  I'anglois.     Genfeve  et  Paris. 
1  vol.  in  Svo. 

1784.  Histoire  d' Angleterre,  representee  par  Figures,  ac- 

compagnees  d'un  Precis  Historique.      Les  Fig- 
ures gravees  par  David.     Paris.     2  vols,  in  4to. 

1785.  Choix  (l':felegies  de  I'Arioste,  traduites  de  I'ltalien 

par  M.  Le  Tourneur.     Paris. 
1785-86.     Clarisse  Harlowe,  traduction  nouvelle  et  seule 

complete   par    M.   Le   Tourneur.      Geneve  et 

Paris.     10  vols,  in  8vo. 
1787.     Voyage  au  Cap  de  Bonne  Espdrance  et  autour  du 

Monde  avec   le   Capitaine    Cook,    par    Andr^ 

Sparrman.     Traduction   par  M.  Le   Tourneur. 

3  vols,  in  8vo. 

1787.  Voyage  en  Allemagne  dans  une  suite  de  Lettres, 

par  M.  le  Baron  de  Riesbeck,  traduites  de  I'ang- 
lois.    3  vols,  in  8vo. 

1788.  Mdmoires  intdressans,  par  Une  Lady,  traduits  de 

I'anglois  par  feu  M.  Le  Tourneur.     Londres  et 
Paris.     1  vol.  in  8vo. 
1788.     Vie  de  Frdddric,  Baron   de   Trenck,  traduite  de 
TAllemand  par  M.  Le  Tourneur.    Berlin  and 
Paris.     1788.    3  vols,  in  8vo. 


APPENDIX  A  266 

1778.    Voyage  k  Ermenonville. 

in  (Euvres  Completes  de  Rousseau.   Paris.  1788. 
Vol.  I. 

1788.  Le  Jardin  Anglois,  ou  Varietes  tant  origin  ales  que 

traduites  par  feu  M.  Le  Tourneur.   2  vols,  in  8vo. 
1779-1789.     Histoire   Universelle   depuis  le    commence- 
ment du  monde  jusqu'a  present,  par  une  Society 
de  Gens  de  Lettres.     120  vols. 

1789.  Le  Nord   du   Globe,  traduit  de  Tanglois  de  M. 

Pennant.     2  vols,  in  8vo. 

Note.  — L'Histoire  de  Mile,  de  Sirval,  ou  le  Triomphe  du  Sen- 
timent, is  wrongly  attributed  by  Ersch  to  Le  Tourneur. 
It  is  by  M.  Tournon  (1760-1794),  de  TAcademie  d' Arras. 


APPENDIX  B 

HERVEY  AND  MONTAIGNE 

"Legions,  Legions  of  Disasters  such  as  no  Prudence 
can  foresee,  and  no  Care  prevent,  lie  in  wait  to  accom- 
plish our  Doom.  A  starting  Horse  may  throw  his  Rider; 
may  at  once  dash  his  Body  against  the  Stones,  and  fling 
his  soul  into  the  invisible  World.  A  Stack  of  Chimnies 
may  tumble  into  the  Street  and  crush  the  unwary  Pas- 
senger under  the  ruins.  Even  a  single  Tile,  dropping 
from  the  Roof,  may  be  as  fatal  as  the  Fall  of  the  whole 
Structure.  So  frail,  so  very  attenuated  is  the  Thread  of 
Life,  that  it  not  only  bursts  before  the  storm,  but  breaks 
even  at  a  Breeze.  The  most  common  Occurrences,  those 
from  which  we  suspect  not  the  least  Harm,  may  prove 
the  Weapon  of  our  Destruction.  A  Grapestone,  a  des- 
picable Fly,  may  be  more  mortal  than  Goliath,  with  all 
his  formidable  Armour.  Nay,  if  God  give  command, 
our  very  Comforts  become  killing.  The  air  we  breathe 
is  our  Bane,  and  the  Food  we  eat,  the  Vehicle  of  Death. 
That  last  Enemy  has  unnumbered  Avenues  for  his  Ap- 
proach, Yea,  lies  intrenched  in  our  very  Bosom,  and 
holds  his  Fortress  in  the  Seat  of  our  Life.  The  crimson 
Fluid,  which  distributes  Health,  is  impregnated  with  the 
Seeds  of  Death,  Heat  may  inflame  it,  or  Toil  oppress  it, 
and  make  it  destroy  the  Parts  it  was  designed  to  cherish. 
Some  unseen  Impediment  may  obstruct  its  Passage,  or 
some  unknown  Violence  may  divert  its  Course,  in  either 


APPENDIX  B  267 

of  which  Cases,  it  acts  the  Part  of  a  poisonous  Draught, 
or  a  deadly  Stab."  — Hervey,  Meditations  among  the  Tombs, 
London,  1759,  Vol.  I.  p.  29. 

This  passage  was  obviously  suggested  by  Montaigne's 
chapter  "  Que  philosopher,  c'est  apprendre  h  mourir."  — 
Bk.  I.  Chap.  XIX. 

"Combien  a  la  mort  de  fa9on  de  surprinse !  k  touts 
instants  representons  la  k  notre  imagination,  et  en  touts 
visages,  au  broncher  d'un  cheval,  a  la  chute  d'une 
taille,  h  la  moindre  piqure  d'epingle "  .  .  .  "  I'aultre 
mourut  d'un  grain  de  raisin." 

"  L'eau,  la  terre,  I'air  et  le  feu  et  aultres  membres  de 
ce  mien  bastiment  ne  sont  non  plus  instrumens  de  la 
vie  qu'instrumens  de  la  mort." 

Le  Tourneur  renders : 

"  Ah !  quelle  foule  de  dangers  et  d'ecueils  imprdvus, 
inevitables,  assiegent  notre  frele  existence  1  Un  coursier 
fougueux  renverse  son  cavalier,  et  I'ecrase  sur  la  pierre. 
Un  edifice  s'ecroule,  et  ensevelit  les  passans  sous  ses 
mines,  une  ardoise  fatale  se  detache  du  toit,  tombe  et 
nous  tue ;  L'atome  le  plus  leger  peut  detruire  la  constitu- 
tion la  plus  robuste.  Que  dis-je  ?  la  mort  est  dans  I'air 
que  nous  respirons,  dans  I'aliment  qui  nous  nourrit,  dans 
le  sang  qui  nous  anime.  Le  repos  nous  est  mortel  comme 
le  travail,  nous  perissons  d'abondance  comme  de  besoin, 
partout  la  mort  s'insinue  et  circule  dans  les  sources 
memes  de  la  vie."    p.  103. 


APPENDIX  C 


LE  COMTE  DE  CATUELAN 

"  Le  comte  de  Catuelan,  tres  verse  dans  la  langue  an- 
glaise  avait  fait  une  excellente  traduction  du  theatre  de 
Shakespeare  qu'il  voulait  faire  imprimer.  Elle  f ut  mise 
k  la  censure  de  M.  Letourneur.  Celui-ci  s'occupait  pr^- 
cisement  k  cette  epoque  de  traduire  ce  meme  ouvrage, 
dont  il  comptait  tirer  le  plus  grand  profit,  et  fut  fort 
etonne  d'avoir  ete  prevenu  aussi  cruellement.  11  trainait 
en  longueur  la  lecture  du  manuscrit,  diff^rait  son  appro- 
bation sous  divers  pretextes,  lorsque  M.  de  Catudlan, 
apprenant  le  veritable  motif  de  ces  lenteurs,  alia  le  voir, 
et  lui  dit  fort  honneteraent  que  ne  voulant  point  se 
trouver  en  concurrence  avec  un  litterateur  aussi  ^claird, 
encore  moins  lui  enlever  les  avantages  qu'il  devait  natu- 
rellement  retirer  de  son  travail,  et  auxquels  lui-meme 
n'aspirait  pas,  il  venait  reprendre  son  manuscrit,  ou  le  lui 
c^der  sous  la  modique  retribution  de  quelques  exemplaires. 
M.  Letourneur,  accepta  avec  beaucoup  de  reconnaissance 
cette  seconde  proposition :  il  denatura  en  quelques  en- 
droits  le  style  du  traducteur,  ajouta  quelques  notes,  et  mit 
son  nom  k  la  tete  de  I'ouvrage  ^  dont  il  retira  toute  la 
gloire  et  le  profit.  .  .  .     Sic  vos  non  vobis." 

1  This  is  an  error.  The  letter  of  dedication  to  The  King 
in  Vol.  I.  is  signed  by  le  comte  de  Catuelan,  Le  Tourneur, 
and  Fontaine  Malherbe. 


APPENDIX  C  269 

Dugast  de  Bois-Saint  Just:  Paris,  Versailles  et  les 
Provinces  au  18^  siecle,  Paris,  1811,  3d  edition. 
3  vols.    Vol.  2,  p.  130. 

"MM.  le  Comte  de  C  .  .  .  et  Le  T.  se  disposent  k 
mettre  incessamment  sous  presse,  k  Paris,  une  traduction 
fidelle  du  theatre  coraplet  de  Shakespeare;  ils  ont  fait 
leurs  efforts  pour  executer  de  leur  mieux,  une  entreprise 
aussi  difficile,  et  qu'ils  croient  digne  d'interesser  le  pub- 
lic. La  traduction  est  achevee;  mais  ils  ne  plaindront 
ni  le  tems,  ni  les  soins  pour  approcher,  le  plus  qu'il  leur 
seroit  possible,  de  I'exactitude  et  de  la  perfection  ;  et  leur 
but  principal  est  de  montrer  k  leur  nation  Shakespeare 
tel  que  le  voyent  les  Anglois."  —  Journal  Encyclopedique, 
August,  1772,  Vol.  V.  p.  427. 


APPENDIX  D 

EXAMPLES  OF  EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  CRITI- 
CISM OF  LE  TOURNEUR'S  TRANSLATION 
OF  SHAKESPEARE 

1.  "  Voici  un  endroifc  oil  Ton  remarque  de  la  noblesse, 
de  la  verite  et  de  la  passion;  c'est  au  moment  ou  Ton 
vient  pour  arreter  Othello  apres  le  meurtre  de  Desdemona. 
On  a  ferme  les  portes  sur  lui,  il  veut  sortir,  Tepee  k  la 
main.  Gratiano  lui  repond  qu'on  s'y  opposera,  et  paroit 
k  la  porte.    Voici  ce  que  lui  dit  Othello : 

Lo !  I  have  a  weapon. 
A  better  never  did  itself  sustain 
Upon  a  soldier's  thigh.     I've  seen  the  day 
That  with  this  little  arm  and  this  good  sword 
I've  made  my  way  through  more  impediments 
Than  twenty  times  your  stop.     But  oh  !  vain  boast ! 
Who  can  control  his  fate  ?     'Tis  not  so  now. 
Be  not  afraid  though  you  do  see  me  weaponed. 
Here  is  my  journey's  end,  here  is  my  butt, 
The  very  seamark  of  my  utmost  sail. 
Do  you  go  back  dismay'd  ?    *Tis  a  lost  fear  : 
Man  but  a  rush  against  Othello's  breast 
And  he  retires.     Where  should  Othello  go? 
Now,  how  dost  thou  look  now  ?    O  ill-starr'd  wench ! 
Pale  as  thy  smocks  1  when  we  shall  meet  at  compt, 
This  look  of  thine  will  hurl  my  soul  from  heaven, 
270 


APPENDIX  D  271 

And  fiends  will  snatch  at  it.     Cold,  cold,  my  girl, 

Even  like  thy  chastity.     O  cursed  slave ! 

Whip  me,  ye  devils. 

From  the  possession  of  this  heavenly  sight. 

Blow  me  about  in  winds,  roast  me  in  sulphur. 

Wash  me  in  steep-down  gulphs  of  liquid  fire. 

Oh !  Desdemona  !  Desdemona !  dead  !  dead  I     Oh  1  Oh  1 

"  Ce  morceau  est  beau.  Les  traducteurs  I'ont  tres  fidele- 
ment  rendu,  mais  n'auroient-ils  pas  pu  accorder  un  peu 
mieux  I'exactitude  de  la  version,  avec  la  correction  du 
langage  et  avec  la  simplicite  elegante  qui  n'auroit  rien 
derobe  des  beautes  de  Shakespeare?  Voici  comme  ils 
ont  traduit : 

"' Vois,  j'ai  une  epee,  jamais  arme  plus  sure  ne  reposa 
sur  la  cuisse  (Tun  soldat.  J'ai  vu  le  tems  oii  avec  ce  foible 
bras  et  cette  bonne  epee,  je  me  serois  fait  jour  k  travers  des 
obstacles  vingt  fois  plus  puissans  que  ceux  que  tu  m'of- 
fres.  Mais  d  vainebravade!  qui  peut  surmonter  sa  des- 
tinee?  II  n'en  est  plus  de  meme.  Ne  t'effraye  point  de 
me  voir  une  arme  k  la  main ;  je  suis  au  terme :  voici  la 
borne  de  ma  carriere,  I'ecueil  ou  finit  ma  derniere  course. 
Tu  recules  de  peur !  Va,  tu  perds  tes  allarmes.  Qu'un 
bras  seulement  menace  le  sein  d'Othello,  et  il  va  fuir. 
Ou  iroit  Othello?  Maintenant,  dans  quel  etat  t'offres-tu 
a  moi,  malheureuse  enfant  nee  sous  une  etoile  fatale? 
Pale  comme  tes  linceuls!  Quand  nous  nous  rencontre- 
rons  au  jour  du  jugement,  cet  aspect  precipitera  won  dme 
des  cieux,  et  soudain  les  demons  se  saisiront  d'elle. — 
Froide,  froide  !  6  douce  victime  !  calme  comme  ton  inno- 
cence !  Scelerat  maudit !  Prenez  vos  fouets,  furies,  f rap- 
pez,  depossedez-tnoi  de  cet  objet  celeste.  Lancez-moi 
dans  les  tourbillons  glace s,  plongez-moi  dans  des  torrens 


272  APPENDIX  D 

de  soufre,  au  fond  de  vos  brasiers  devorans.     O  Desd^- 
mone !  Desddmone  I  morte,  morte  !     Oh  1  oh  ! ' 

"Ceux  qui  ont  quelque  connoissance  de  I'Anglois 
s'apercevront  aisdment,  que  sans  nuire  en  rien  k  la 
fidelite  on  pourroit  donner  k  cette  traduction  le  ton  noble 
et  soutenu  que  comportoit  Toriginal  en  cet  endroit.  II 
ne  faut  point,  sans  doute,  orner  Shakespeare,  puisqu'on 
veut  le  faire  connoitre :  mais  il  ne  faut  point  le  gater. 
Qu'est-ce  que  cette  expression  grotesque  d'une  arme  qui 
repose  sur  la  cuisse  d'un  soldat  ?  II  est  vrai  que  le  mot 
thigh  est  dans  le  texte,  mais  les  Traducteurs  savent  si 
bien  nous  dire  que  beaucoup  de  mots  qui  sont  bas  dans 
notre  langue  ne  le  sont  pas  dans  celle  des  Anglois.  lis 
I'ont  tant  dit  k  M.  de  Voltaire,  qui,  pourtant,  n'avoit 
traduit  d'une  maniere  basse  que  ce  qui  etoit  bas  partout. 
Ici  ce  n'etoit  pas  la  meme  chose.  C'est  une  delicatesse 
particuliere  k  notre  langue,  que  de  ne  pas  admettre  dans 
le  style  noble  des  mots  qui  expriment  certaines  parties  du 
corps  que  les  anciens  et  les  modernes  ne  craignoient  pas 
de  nommer  dans  un  Po^me,  et  Shakespeare  s'est  servi  du 
mot  thigh,  comme  Virgile  du  mot  cms.  Mais  le  sens 
n'auroit-il  pas  ete  tout  aussi  bien  rendu  sans  ce  mot  de 
cuisse,  qui  pour  des  oreilles  Fran9oises,  gateroit  la  plus 
belle  phrase?  En  eut-il  coute  beaucoup  de  substituer 
ceci :  Jamais  arme  plus  sure  ne  fut  dans  la  main  d'un 
soldat  f  Ailleurs,  c'est  la  langue  qui  est  offensee.  Perdre 
ses  alarmes !  ce  langage  est-il  tolerable?  II  y  a  dans 
I'original,  His  a  lost  fear:  mot  k  mot:  lacrainteest  perdue. 
Mais  ce  mot  lost,  perdue,  est  ici  le  synonyrae  de  superflue. 
Rien  n'etoit  si  simple  que  de  traduire :  tes  allarmes  sont 
vaines :  et  ce  qu'il  y  a  de  pis,  c'est,  qu'au  lieu  du  mot 
propre  qui  se  prdsente  de  lui-meme,  les  Traducteurs  ont  dtd 
chercher  bien  loin  des  barbarismes  strangers,  et  se  sont 


APPENDIX  D  273 

donne  beaiicoup  de  peine  pour  faire  mal.  C'est  une 
remarque  qui  s'offre  k  tout  moment  k  I'esprit  en  lisant 
leur  Shakespeare. 

"  Qu'un  bras  seulement  menace  le  sein  d'Othello :  Pour- 
quoi  cette  tournure  bizarre,  un  bras  f  II  y  a  dans  I'An- 
glois  man,  un  homme,  qui  vaut  beaucoup  mieux :  qu'un 
homme  leve  le  bras  contre  Othello,  et  Othello  va  fuir.^ 
Voila  la  phrase  de  I'Auteur  Anglois.  Que  dirons-nous 
de  cet  aspect  qui  precipitera  mon  dme  et  des  furies  qui 
prennent  leurs  fouets  pour  deposseder?  Tout  cela  est 
dans  FAnglois,  il  est  vrai,  mais  c'est  ici  le  cas  ou  la  lettre 
tue;  et  des  expressions  plus  justes  et  plus  fran9oises 
n'auroient  pas  ete  moins  exactes. 

"  Voila  bien  des  f  antes  dans  un  seul  morceau,  et  c'est  un 
des  meilleurs  de  Shakespeare :  qu'on  juge  si  le  reste  est 
mieux  travaille.  M.  M.  Le  Tourneur  et  Compagnie 
auroient  du  louer  moins  leur  Auteur  et  le  traduire  mieux." 
—  Journal  de  Politique  et  Litterature,  Mai,  1778. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  eighty  years  later,  Fran- 
9ois  Victor  Hugo,  in  his  translation  of  Othello,  retained 
the  objectionable  cuisse  and  boldly  rendered  "  ton  appari- 
tion jt?rec/pi7era  mon  dme  du  del."  —  Vol.  V.  p.  380,  Othello^ 
Scene  16. 

"C'est  en  rendant  avec  soin  ces  beautes  reelles  qui 
font  le  merite  de  Shakespeare,  que  les  Traducteurs 
auroient  beaucoup  mieux  travaille  pour  sa  gloire, 
qu'en  exaltant  ses  defauts.  lis  out  annonce  hautement 
que  pour  la  premiere  fois  on  verroit   Shakespeare,  tel 

1  This  is  a  case  of  the  blind  leading  the  blind.  Man  in 
the  English  text  means,  of  course,  not  a  man,  but  is  the 
verb,  to  arm  against,  to  threaten  with. 

T 


274  APPENDIX  D 

qu'il  ^toit ;  ils  se  sont  vantds  de  la  fidelity  la  plus  scrupu- 
leuse.  II  est  pourtant  vrai,  que  souvent  ils  ont  masqu^ 
egalement,  et  ses  beautds  et  ses  defauts.  :  .  .  II  s'en 
faut  de  beaucoup  que  les  traducteurs  ayent  6t6  aussi 
fiddles  qu'ils  se  piquent  de  I'etre :  Mais  qu'importe  que 
de  mauvaises  choses  soient  mal  traduites  ?  .  .  .  II  y  a 
plus ;  c'est,  que  par  un  contraste  assez  maladroit,  ils  ont 
cru  souvent  rendre  la  naivete  et  I'energie  de  I'Auteur, 
par  des  tournures  triviales  ou  baroques;  et  quand  L 
falloit  nous  montrer  sa  grossierete  telle  qu'elle  etoit,  ils 
se  sont  permis  plus  d'une  fois  de  I'annoblir,  et  de  le 
f  arder  mal  k  propos.  Je  n'en  veux  qu'un  exemple  tire 
de  la  Scene  onzieme  du  second  Acte  d'Othello.  Cette 
Scene  se  passe  dans  le  Corps  de  Garde:  on  boit,  on 
chante,  et  les  chansons  doivent  etre  dignes  du  lieu. 
C'est  Shakespeare  tout  pur;  11  n'y  avoit  nulle  raison 
pour  I'orner.  Voici  le  couplet  que  les  Traducteurs 
mettent  dans  la  bouche  d'lago : 
"  Dans  la  bassesse  ou  tu  respires, 

N'affecte  point  I'orgueil  d'un  vetement  nouveau. 

L'orgueil  ren verse  les  empires  : 

Sois  humble,  et  prends  sur  toi  ton  antique  manteau. 
<*  Je  ne  sais  pas  pourquoi  ces  Messieurs  ont  voulu  f aire 
une  ode  de  ce  couplet  de  la  Halle.  lis  ont  manqu^  k 
la  fidelity  sans  autre  fruit  que  de  rompre  I'unisson  de  la 
Sc^ne  qui  est  du  ton  de  la  Chanson  Angloise." — /Wd., 
June,  1778. 

"  On  en  dira  ce  qu'on  voudra,  il  nous  falloit  un  Shake- 
speare complet  avec  ses  perles  et  son  fumier  in  ster- 
quilimio  margaritas. 

"  Ayez-le,  c'est  d'abord  ce  que  vous  lui  devez, 
Et  vous  I'estimerez  aprfes  si  vous  pouvez. 


APPENDIX  D  275 

"  n  seroit  raeme  injuste  de  ne  pas  estimer  un  genie  si 
original,  un  peintre  si  energiqiie  d'une  nature,  qui,  k  la 
verite,  n'est  ni  choisie  ni  ornee,  dans  lequel  on  trouve, 
apres  tout,  de  grands  modeles  du  tragique  en  tout  genre, 
et  qui,  presentant  des  objets  souvent  affreux  et  degou- 
tants,  mais  toujours  vrais,  revolte  souvent,  mais  n'ennuie 
jamais.  Nous  en  disons  trop  peut-etre  pour  les  Lecteurs 
Fran9ois  et  nous  n'en  disons  certainement  pas  assez  pour 
des  Lecteurs  Anglois.  Shakespeare  fait  toujours,  et  par- 
tout,  leurs  delices  et  ils  ne  con^oivent  pas  plus  nos  froi- 
deurs  et  nos  degouts  a  I'egard  de  certaines  scenes  de  ce 
Poete,  que  nous  ne  concevons  leur  continuelle  admiration 
et  leur  meprisable  enthousiasme.  C'est  une  chose  vrai- 
ment  remarquable  que  cette  difference,  ou  plutdt  cette 
opposition  de  gout  entre  deux  Nations  si  voisines,  et 
toutes  deux  si  eclairees.  Au  reste,  tout  est  dit  depuis 
longtemps  sur  ce  sujet. 

"  Le  Henri  VIII.  de  Shakespeare  prouve  que  cet  Auteur 
savoit  mettre  dans  ses  portraits  autant  d'adresse  que  de 
verite ;  c'est  veritablement  un  tour  de  force  que  d'avoir 
traite  ce  sujet  d'une  maniere  qui  put  plaire  k  la  Reine 
Elizabeth,  placee,  comme  elle  I'etoit,  entre  un  pere  dont 
elle  vouloit  respecter  la  memoire  et  une  mere  a  qui  ce 
pere  cruel  avoit  fait  trancher  la  tete. 

"  Le  traduction  fait  de  I'effet :  elle  est  done  bonne,  et 
elle  manquoit.  Le  Traducteur  devroit,  pourtant,  s'ab- 
stenir  de  certaines  expressions  recherchees,  de  certains 
tours  bizarres  qui  n'appartenoient  point  k  la  Langue. 
Pourquoi  des  plaintes  irrespectueuses  ?  Pourquoi  cette 
expression  naufragee  sur  un  'Royaume  ou  il  n'y  a  ni 
pitie/  etc.,  et  cette  autre:  'Si  nous  nous  conduisons 
avec  cette  moUe  foiblesse,  et  que  nous  nous  laissons  sur- 


V     »F  THE 

U^41VERSlTY 

OF 


276  APPENDIX  D 

mener  par  un  manteau  d'ecarlate.*  Pourquoi  cette  for- 
mule  d'optatif  qui  n'est  point  dans  la  Langue,  et  qui 
revient  ties  souvent  dans  cette  Traduction?  'Ah!  que 
cela/M<  k  f  aire  encore  ! '  Tandis  qu'il  est  si  aise  de  dire 
en  bon  Francois:  Ah  !  que  cela  rCest-il  encore  afaire  f 

"  *  C'est  beaucoup  plus  que  je  ne  puis  consentir.'  Cette 
phrase  n'est  point  correcte. 

"  '  Je  ne  suis  pan  assez  grande  pour  etre  votre  Reine,  et 
je  le  suis  trop  pour  etre  votre  concubine.' 

"  Ce  mot  de  Lady-Gray  a  Edouard  IV.  est  le  mot  connu 
de  Catherine  de  Rohan  k  Henri  IV.  Qu'elle  e'foit  trop 
pauvre  pour  etre  sa  femme,  et  de  trop  honne  Maison  pour 
etre  sa  maitresse;  mais  il  est  mal  exprime  dans  la  Traduc- 
tion, et  je  ne  suis  pas  assez  grande,  n'est  pas  un  tour 
heureux."  —  Mercure  de  France,  July,  1782. 


APPENDIX  E 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  EDITIONS 

Abbreviations  :  Bib.  Nat.  =  Bibliotheque  Nationale  in  Paris. 
Brit.  Mus.  Cat.  =  British  Museum  Catalogue. 

Original   Works : 

Eloge  de  Clairaut. 
in  Necrologie  des  hommes  cel^bres  de  France.    Paris. 
1766.     (Bib.  Nat.  L.2  n.  19.) 

(The  same,  reprinted  in  Le  Jardin  Anglois,  par  Le 
Tourneur.  Paris.  1788.  Vol.  I.)  (Bib.  Nat.  Y^ 
12,478.) 

Discours  Moraux,  couronnes  par  les  Academies  de 
Montauban  et  de  Besan9on  en  1766  et  1767,  avec  un 
Eloge  de  Charles  V.,  Roi  de  Fiance, par  M"^.  Sens 
et  Paris.  1768.  Chez  Tarbe  et  la  Veuve  Pierre  Fils. 
In  8vo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Z.  28,691.) 

(The  same,  reprinted  in  Le  Jardin  Anglois,  Vol.  I.) 

Eloge  du  Marechal  du  Muy,  Qui  a  remporte  le  Prix, 
au  Jugement  de  TAcademie  de  Marseille,  le  25 
Aout,  1778,  par  M.  Le  Tourneur.  Bruxelles  et 
Paris,  chez  I'Auteur,  rue  de  Tournon  et  chez  Merigot 
Jeune.     1778.     In  8vo.     (Bib.  Nat.  L.27  n  6704.) 

Voyage  k  Elrmenonville. 
in  CEuvres  completes  de  J.  J.  Rousseau.     Nouvelle 
Edition.     Paris.     1788.     Poin9ot.     Tome  I.     (Bib. 
Nat.  Z.  36,379.) 

277 


278  APPENDIX  E 

(Les  pieces  nouvelles  ins^r^es  dans  ce  volume  sont: 

Introduction,  par  M.  Mercier. 

Voyage  k  Ermenonville,  par  feu  M.  Le  Tourneur,  pour 
servir  de  Preface. 

Notes  de  J.  J.  Rousseau  sur  sa  Nouvelle  Hdloise. 

Notes  des  Editeurs.) 
Translations ; 
La  Jeune  Fille  Seduite  et  Le  Courtisan  Ermifce,  contes 

traduits  de  I'anglois  par  M.  Le  Tourneur.     Paris, 

Lejay.     1769.     In  8vo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y.2  44,063.) 
(The  same,  reprinted  in  abridged  form  under  the  title 

Le  Remords,  Histoire  de  Miss  Jennie,  in  Le  Jardin 

Anglois.    Vol.  I.) 
Les  Nuits  d'Young,  traduites  de  I'anglois  par  M.  Le 

Tourneur  (Sunt  lacrymae  rerum  et  mentem  mortalia 

tangunt.    Virgile).    Paris,  Lejay.   Avec  approbation 

et  privilege  du  Roi.     1769.    2  vols,  in  8vo.     (Bib. 

Nat.  Y.  K.  2520-21.) 
(The  same.)      Lyon,  Jean  Deiville,  et  Paris,  Lejay. 

1769.    2  vols,  in  8vo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5167-68.) 
(The  same.)  Seconde  edition,  corrig^e  et  augmentee  du 

Triomphe    de   la   Religion.     Paris.     1769.    2  vols. 

(Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  2524-25.) 
(The  same.)    Nouvelle  Edition.     Paris,  Lejay.    1770. 

2  vols,  in  8vo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5173-74.) 
(The  same.)   Quatri^me  edition,  corrigde  et  augmentde 

du  Triomphe  de  la  Religion.     Paris,  Lejay.     1775. 

2  vols,  in  8vo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  2428-29.) 
(The  same.)    Nouvelle  Edition.     Paris,  Lejay.     1781. 

2  vols,  in  12mo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5177-78.) 
(The  same.)  Paris.   1783.  2  vols.    (Cited  by  Qudrard.) 
Les  Nuits  d'Young,  traduites  de  I'anglais  par  Letour- 

neur ;  mises  en  vers  fran^ais  par  Hardouin.     Paris. 


APPENDIX  E  279 

Didot   l'Ain€.     1792.     4  vols.     (Bib.  Nat.   Y.  K. 

2533-36). 
(Prose  translation  of  Le  Tourneur  on  opposite  page.) 
Abrege  des  Nuits  (traduction  de  Letourneur).    Bale. 

1796.     (Cited  by  Querard.) 
Les  Nuits  d'Young,  traduites  de  I'anglais  par  M.  Le 

Tourneur.      Nouvelle    edition.      Lyon,    Blache    et 

Boget.     1812.    4  vols,  in  18mo.      (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K. 

5181-84.) 
(The  same.)     Nouvelle  edition.     Paris,  Ledentu   Li- 

braire,   quai  des   Augustins  31.     1817.     2  vols,   in 

18mo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5188-89.) 
(The  same.)    Nouvelle  edition.   Paris,  De  Pelafol,  Li- 

braire,  rue  des  Grands  Augustins  21.    1818.    2  vols. 

in  8vo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5186-87.) 
(The  same.)    Nouvelle  edition.    Paris,  Ledentu.    1821. 

2  vols,  in  18mo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5188-89.) 
(The  same.)    Nouvelle  edition.     Avignon,  J.  A.  Joly. 

1822.     4  vols,  in  18mo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5190-93.) 
(The  same.)  Nouvelle  edition.    Paris,  T.  Tenre'.   1823. 

2  vols,  in  12mo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5194-95.) 
Les  Nuits  d'Young,  suivies  des  Tombeaux  et  des  Medi- 
tations   d'Hervey.       Traduction  de    Le   Tourneur. 

Nouvelle  edition,  ornee  de  belles  vignettes.     Paris, 

Ledoux,  rue  Guenegaud    9.     1824.    2  vols,  in  8vo. 

(Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5196-97.) 
(Vol.  I.  contains  also  Collardeau's  verse  translations  of 

Nights  I  and  II.     Vol.  II  is  augmented  by  Gray's 

Elegy,  translated  in  prose  by  Le  Tourneur  and  in 

verse  by  M.  J.  Chenier.) 
Les  Nuits  d'Young,  traduites  de  I'anglais  par  M.  Le 

Tourneur.  .  .  .    Nouvelle  edition.    Lons-Le-Saunier, 

Escalle&Cie.  1825.  2  vols.  (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5198-99.) 


280  APPENDIX  E 

Les  Nuits  d'Young,  traduction  de  Le  Tourneur,  suivies 
de  I'Elegie  de  Gray  sur  un  cimetiere  de  campagne, 
traduite  par  le  nieme,  et  en  vers  par  M.  J.  Cheiiier. 
Nouvelle  edition,  ornee  de  deux  vignettes.  Paris,  H. 
Langlois,  Fils,  et  Le  Bailly,  Editeurs.  1826,  1828. 
2  vols,  in  18mo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5200-01.) 

Les  Nuits  d'Young,  traduites  de  I'anglais  par  M.  Le 
Tourneur.  Paris,  Ledentu.  1827.  2  vols,  in  18mo. 
(Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5202-03.) 

(The  same.)  Paris,  Froment.  1829.  2  vols,  in  18mo. 
(Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5206-07.) 

(The  same.)    Paris,  Lebigre  freres.    1831.    2  vols,  in 
18mo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5208-09.) 
.    (The  same.)    Paris,  Philippe.     1834.     2  vols,  in  18mo. 
(Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5210-11.) 

(The  same.)  Paris.  Lebigre  freres.  1836.  2  vols,  in 
18mo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5212-13.) 

Les  Nuits  d'Young,  suivies  des  Tombeaux  d'Hervey. 
Traduction  de  P.  Le  Tourneur;  revue  et  preced^e 
d'un  Essai  sur  le  Jobisme  par  P.  Christian.  Paris, 
Lavigne.     1842.    In  8vo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5214.) 

Les  Nuits  d'Young,  traduites  de  I'anglais  par  Le  Tour- 
neur. Paris,  Ruel  Aind.  1854.  2  vols,  in  18mo. 
(Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5215-16.) 

(The  same.)  Paris,  B.  Renaulin  &  Cie.  Editeurs.  1856. 
2  vols,  in  18mo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5217-18.) 

(Euvres  di verses  du  Docteur  Young,  traduites  de 
I'anglois  par  M.  Le  Tourneur.  Paris,  Lejay.  1770. 
2  vols,  in  8vo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  5247-48.) 

(The  same.)  Lyon,  chez  Rosset;  Rouen,  chez  A. 
Lucas;  Bordeaux,  Labotti^re;  Amsterdam,  chez 
Changuyon ;  Caen,  chez  Le  Roy ;  Orleans,  chez 
Massot ;  Marseille,  chez  Massy.  (Fly  leaf  of  above.) 


APPENDIX  E  281 

(Euvres  completes  d'Young,  traduites  de  I'anglais  par 
M.  Le  Tourneur.     Paris.     1796.     6  vols,  in  18mo. 
(This  edition  contains  also  the  Meditations  d'Her- 
vey;  cited  by  Querard.) 

(Euvres  completes.  Traduction  de  Le  Tourneur. 
Avignon,  J.  A.  Joly.  1822.  4  vols,  in  24mo.  (Bib. 
Nat.  Y.  K.  5190-93.     Les  Nuits  only.) 

La  Vengeance,  Busiris,  tragedies,  traduites  de  I'anglais 
d'Young,  par  Le  Tourneur. 

in  Theatres  Etrangers,  Vol.  XIV.  (Theatre  Anglais, 
Vol.  II.)  Paris,  Brissot-Thivars.  1822.  (Bib.  Nat. 
Y.  673.) 

Le  Notti  di  Young,  tradotte  dal  Francese,  dal  Signer 
Abate  Alberti.  .  .  .  Terza  editione  corretta  ed 
accresciuta  del  Triomfo  della  Religione.  Marsiglia, 
Mossy.  1770,  1771.  3  vols,  in  8vo.  (Bib.  Nat.  Y. 
K.  5242-44.) 

(Le  Tourneur's  translation  on  opposite  page.) 

Le  Lamentazioni,  ossieno  Le  Notti  d'Odoardo  Young, 
coir  aggiunta  di  altri  sue  operette.  Libera  Tradu- 
zione  di  Ludovico  Antonio  Loschi  con  varie  anno- 
tazioni.  .  .  .  Venezia.  1784.  Presso  Giovanni  Vitto. 
(Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  2532.) 

(Discorso  preliminare  del  Traduttore  Francese.) 

"  Non  sapendo  io  nulla  dell'  idioma  inglese,  m'  4  state 
giuoco  forzal'  attenermi  passo  passo  alia  traduzione 
francese  del  Signor  le  Tourneur."  (Prefazione  del 
Traduttore  Italian o.) 

Noites  d'Young,  traduzidas  em  vulgar  por  V.  C.  d'Oli- 
viera  e  addicionadas  com  as  notas  de  Mr.  Le  Tour- 
neur, com  OS  poemas  do  Juizo  Final,  e  do  Triunfo 
da  Religiao  contra  o  Amor,  e  outras  opusculos  do 
mesmo  Young.     Terceira  edu9ao,  correcta  e  emen- 


282  APPENDIX  E 

dada  pelo  traductor  dos  Seculos  Christa    os    etc. 

Lisboa.     1804.     In  8vo. 
(Cited  by  Thomas,  Le  Poete,  Edward  Young.     Paris. 

1895.) 
Meditations   d'Hervey,  traduites  de  I'anglois   par   M. 

LeTourneur.     Paris,  Le  jay.     1770.    In  8vo.     (Cited 

by  Querard.) 
Meditations   d'Hervey,  traduites  de  I'anglois  par  M. 

LeTourneur.     Paris,  Lejay.     1771.     In  8vo.     Avec 

approbation  et  permission.    (Bib.  Nat.  R.  19,715-16 ; 

R.  19,717-18,  2  copies.) 
Abrege  des  CEuvres   d'Hervey.      Traduction    de    Le 

Tourneur.     Guillaume  Haas,  Fils,  Bale.     1796.     In 

18mo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Reserve  R.  2467.) 
Les  Tombeaux  et  les  Meditations  d'Hervey,  precddees 

de  sa  Vie,  traduit  de  I'anglais  par  M.  Le  Tourneur. 

{Plurima    mortis    imago.      Virg.)      Rolland,    Lyon. 

1817.     In  8vo.     (Bib.  Nat.  R.  38,488.) 
(The  same.)     Rolland,   Lyon.     1823.     (Bib.  Nat.  R. 

38,489.) 
Les  Tombeaux  et  Les  Meditations  d'Hervey,  prdcdddes 

de  sa  Vie,  traduit  de  I'anglais  par  M.  Le  Tourneur. 

Jersey.     1841.     (Cited  in  Brit.  Mus.  Cat.) 
(The  same,  edited  with  Nuits  d'Young.)    Paris.    1796. 

Chez   Ledoux,   1824;    chez   Lavigne,    1842.      (Bib. 

Nat.  Y.  K.  5196,  Y.  K.  5214.) 
Histoire  de  Richard  Savage  et  de  J.  Thomson,  tradu- 
ites de  I'anglois  par  M.  Le  Tourneur.     Paris,  Fdtil. 

1771.     Avec   approbation   et    permission.     In    8vo. 

(Bib.  Nat.  N.  X.  971.) 
L'Histoire  du  r^gne  de  I'empereur  Charles  Quint,  prd- 

cedde   d'un  Tableau  des  progrfes   de  la  Socidtd  en 

Europe  depuia  la  destruction  de  I'Empire  Romain, 


APPENDIX  E  283 

jusqu'au  commencement  du  seizi^me  si^cle,  par 
M.  Robertson,  Docteur  en  Theologie,  Principal  de 
rUniversite  d'Edinbourg,  et  liistoriographe  de  sa 
Majeste  Britannique  pour  I'Ecosse.  Ouvrage  tradiiit 
de  I'anglois.  Amsterdam  et  Paris,  chez  Saillant  et 
Nyon,  Pissot,  Desaint,  Pankoucke.  1771.  6  vols,  in 
12mo  and  2  vols,  in  4to.  (Bib.  Nat.  Oc.  125.) 
(The  same.)    1781.     6  vols,  in  12mo.     1788.     (Cited 

by  Querard.) 
(The   same.)     Paris.     1817,   1822,   1843.     (Cited    by 

Querard. 
Choix  de  Contes  et  de  Poesies  erses,  traduits  de  I'an- 
glois par  M.  Le  Tourneur.     Amsterdam  and  Paris, 
Lejay.     1771.    In  8vo.    2  vols,  in  1.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y. 
K.  2927-28.) 
(The  same,  Pt.  II.,  reprinted  with   Les  Meprises,  ou 
Lucrece  Bradamante,   par   Cazalet.     Paris.     1777.) 
(Bib.  Nat.  Y.2  21,466.) 
Shakespeare,  traduit  de  I'anglois,  dedie  au  Hoi.    (Homo 
sum  :  Humani  nihil  a  me  alienum  puto.     Ter.) 
Paris,  chez  la  Veuve  Duchesne,  Musier  Fils,  Nyon, 
La    Combe,    Ruault,   Lejay,    Clousier.      1776-1783. 
Avec    approbation   et  privilege   du  Roi.     20   vols. 
in  8vo.  (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  1233-52.)     Also  in  4to,  3 
copies. 

^completes  de  Shakespeare,  traduites  de  I'an- 

r  Letourneur.      Nouvelle   edition,  revue   et 

par  F.  Guizot  et  A.  P.  (Pichot),  traducteur 

Byron ;  precedee  d'une  notice  biographique 

[aire  sur  Shakespeare  par  F.  Guizot.     Ladvo- 

caire,  au  Palais   Royal.      Paris.     1821.     13 

(Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  1253-64.) 

(Euvres  d^Shakespeare,  traduites    de  I'anglais  par 


284  APPENDIX  E 

Letoumeur.  Nouvelle  edition,  corrig^e  et  augments 
des  commentaires  de  Voltaire  et  de  La  Harpe.  A 
la  Librairie  de  Brissot-Thivars,  rue  Chabannais, 
No.  2,  pres  la  rue  Neuve  des  Petits  Champs.  Paris. 
1821-1822.  12  vols,  in  18mo.  (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  660-71.) 
in  Theatres  Etrangers. 

CEuvres  dramatiques  de  Shakespeare,  traduites  de 
TAnglais  par  Letourneur.  Nouvelle  edition,  pre- 
cedee  d'une  notice  biographique  et  litteraire  par  M. 
Horace  Meyer,  traducteur  des  oeuvres  de  Schiller,  et 
ornee  du  portrait  de  Shakespeare  grav^  sur  acier. 
Imprimerie  d'Amad^e  Saintin.  Editeur,  rue  Saint 
Jacques  38.  Paris.  1833.  2  vols,  in  8vo.  (Bib. 
Nat.  Y.  K.  1296-97.) 

(in  CEuvres  dramatiques  de  Shakespeare  et  de 
Schiller  .  .  .  par  M.  J.  A.  Havard.  Paris.  A. 
Havard,  Editeur,  1834.) 

CEuvres  completes  de  Shakespeare,  traduction  enti^re- 
ment  revue  sur  le  texte  anglais  par  M.  Fraucisque 
Michel,  et  prdcedee  de  la  vie  de  Shakespeare  par 
Woodsworth.  Chez  H.  Delloye  et  Firmin  Didot, 
Paris.  1839.  3  vols,  in  8vo.  (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  344-46.) 
(Translation  by  Le  Tourneur,  Life  of  Shakespeare, 
by  Thomas  Campbell.) 

(Another  edition.)  Traduction  entiferement  revue  sur 
le  texte  anglais  par  M.  F.  Michel,  et  pre'c^dde  de  la 
vie  de  Shakespeare  par  J.  Campbell.  Firmin  Didot, 
Paris.     1855.     3  vols,  in  8vo.     (Bib.  Nat.  347-49). 

(Another  edition  of  Le  Tourneur's  translation.) 
(Paris.  1844)  ?  8vo.  Part  of  the  "  Magasin  th^atral 
stranger." — Imperfect,  consisting  only  of  "  Les 
Deux  Gentilhommes  de  Vdrone,"  "Les  Joyeuses 
Comm^res  de   Windsor,"   "  Mesure  pour   Mesure," 


APPENDIX  E  286 

"  Beaucoup  de  Bruit  pour  Rien  "  et  "  Peines  d' Amour 

Perdues."     (Brit.  Mus.  Cat.) 

(Possibly  the  same  as  Theatre  fitranger  of  1821.) 

(Euvres  de  Shakespeare  illustrees  d'un  portrait  de 
Shakespeare  et  de  9  gravures  hors  texte  de  Westal, 
Hamilton  Smirke  etc.,  d'apres  I'edition  anglaise. 
(London.  1791-1802.)  Traduction  de  Letourneur, 
revue  par  Ch.  Vogel.  Editee  specialemeut  pour  les 
Magasins  du  Bon  Marche,  par  A.  Deslinieres.  8  rue 
de  Chantilly.  Paris.  1899.  2  vols,  in  8vo.  (Bib. 
Nat.  8°  y.  K.  596-97.) 

CEuvres  choisies  de  Shakespeare,  traduites  par  M.  Le- 
tourneur et  augmentees  d'un  preface  par  M.  Du- 
pontacq,  Prof.  Jules  Cesar,  Hamlet  et  Macbeth. 
Berche  et  Tralin,  Editeurs,  69  rue  de  Rennes.  Paris. 
188L     8vo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  4860.) 

Macbeth,  trag^die  par  Shakespeare.  Traduction  fran- 
9aise  par  Letourneur,  revue  et  corrigee.  Jules 
Delalain,  et  Fils,  Paris.  1875.  (Cette  traduction 
est  precedee  de  la  notice  litt^raire  de  M.  E.  Sedley, 
qui  fait  partie  de  la  nouvelle  collection  des  auteurs 
anglais  format  in  18.)     (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  4886.) 

(Another  edition.)  1877.  (Bib.  Nat.  Y.  K.  4887, 
4889.) 

W.  Shakespeare,  La  Tempete,  drame  en  5  actes  en 
prose.  Traduction  de  Le  Tourneur.  Librairie  de  la 
Bibliotheque  Nationale,  2  rue  de  Valois,  Palais  Royal, 
Paris.     1881.     16mo.     (Bib.  Nat.  8°  Y.  K.  572.) 

Ossian,  fils  de  Fingal,  barde  du  troisieme  siecle,  poesies 
galliqaes,  traduites  sur  I'anglois  de  M.  Macpherson, 
par  M.  Le  Tourneur.  Paris,  Musier  Fils.  2  vols,  in 
4to  and  8vo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Yn.  30-31 ;  Yn.  134-33). 

Ossian,  fils  de   Fingal,  barde  du  1X1^  siecle,  poesies 


86  APPENDIX  E 

galliques  traduites  sur  I'anglois  de  Macpherson,  par 
Le  Tourneur.  Nouvelle  edition  revue,  corrigee  et 
augmentee,  ornee  de  gravures.  Paris.  1799.  2 
vols,  in  8vo.     (Cited  by  Querard.) 

Cathuelina,  ou  les  Amis  rivaux,  poeme  imitd  d'Ossian, 
et  mis  en  vers  f  ran^ais  d'apres  la  traduction  en  prose 
de  Le  Tourneur.  Paris.  1801.  In  Svo.  (Cited 
by  Querard.) 

Poemes  d'Ossian  et  de  quelques  autres  bardes,  pour 
servir  de  suite  h  I'Ossian  de  Le  Tourneur,  traduits 
de  I'anglais  par  Hill.  (Masque  de  Labaume,  et  de 
David  de  St.  George.)  Paris.  1795.  3  vols,  in  ISmo. 
(Bib.  Nat.  Yn.  128.     Vol.  II.  only.) 

(The  same.)  Traduction  par  Le  Tourneur,  David  de 
St.  George  (et  Labaume) .  Paris.  1798.  7  vols,  in  ISmo. 
(Cited  by  Querard.) 

(Another  edition.)  Augmentee  des  poemes  d'Ossian 
et  de  quelques  autres  bardes,  traduits  sur  I'anglais 
de  M.  Smith,  pour  servir  de  suite  k  I'Ossian  de  Le 
Tourneur ;  et  prdc^d^e  d'une  notice  sur  I'etat  aotuel 
de  la  question  relative  k  I'authenticit^  des  pofemes 
d'Ossian,  par  M.  Guinguend.  Paris.  1810.  2  vols, 
in  8vo.     (Cited  by  Querard.) 

Vuede  I'Evidence  de  la  Religion  Chr^tienne  considdrde 
en  elle-meme,  traduite  de  I'Anglois  par  M.  Le 
Tourneur.  (Vous  me  persuadez  presque  de  devenir 
Chretien.  Actes  des  Apotres,  xxvi.  28.)  Paris. 
L'Auteur,  rue  de  Tournon,  Berton,  Mdrigot  jeune. 
Avec  approbation  et  privilege  du  Roi.  1769.  In  Svo. 
(Bib.  Nat.  D.  21,546.) 

(The  date  should  be  1779  as  shown  by  Privilege.) 

(The  same.)  Yverdun,  Felice,  Prof.  (Cited  in  preface 
to  edition  of  1797.) 


APPENDIX  E  287 

Del  I'Evidence  de  la  Religion  Chretienne,  par  M.  Jen- 
nings, ancien  membre  de  la  Chambre  des  Communes. 
Traduit  de  I'anglais,  troisieme  edition,  augmentee 
d'un  Plan  de  Fenelon  sur  le  meme  sujet,  et  de 
Pensees  sur  la  Providence.  Paris,  chez  Le  Clere, 
Libraire,  Delance,  Imprimeur.  1797.  8vo.  (Bib. 
Nat.  D.  39,339.) 

(The  same.)  Quatrieme  edition,  augmentee  d'un 
Discours  de  M.  Blair  sur  les  avantages  de  la  Reli- 
gion et  de  Maximes  Chretiennes.  Paris,  Impritnerie 
de  Delance  et  Lesueur.  1802.  In  8vo.  (Bib.  Nat. 
D.  39,340.) 

Histoire  Universelle  depuis  le  commencement  du 
monde  jusqu'k  present,  par  une  Societe  de  Gens  de 
Lettres.  Paris.  120  vols.  1779-178S.  (Bib.  Nat. 
G.  4024-69.) 

Le  Sylphe,  traduit  de  I'anglois.  Geneve  et  Paris, 
Merigot  jeune.  1784.  In  8vo.  (Bib.  Nat.  Y^. 
11,901-02.) 

Histoire  d'Angleterre,  representee  par  Figures,  ac- 
compagnees  d'un  Precis  Historique.  Les  Figures 
gravees  par  F.  A.  David,  d'apres  les  Dessins  des 
plus  celebres  Artistes  de  differentes  Academies  de 
I'Europe.  Dediee  et  presentee  k  Monsieur,  frere  du 
Roi.  Paris,  chez  David,  graveur.  1784.  2  vols,  in 
4to.     Avec  privilege  du  Roi.     (Bib.  Nat.  Na.  179.) 

(Dedicatory  letter  to  Monsieur,  signed  by  David  and 
Le  Tourneur.) 

Clarisse  Harlowe.  Traduction  nouvelle  et  seule  com- 
plete, par  M.  Le  Tourneur.  Faite  sur  I'Edition 
origin  ale  revue  par  Richardson ;  ornee  de  figures  du 
celebre  Chodowieki,  de  Berlin.  Dediee  et  presentee 
h,  Monsieur,  frere  du  Roi.     (Humanos  mores  nosse 


288  APPENDIX  E 

volenti  sufficit  una  Domus.)  Geneve,  chez  Paul 
Barde,  et  Paris,  chez  Moutard  et  Merigot  le  jeune. 
1785.  10  vols,  in  8vo.  (Bib.  Nat.  Y^.  62,812.)  4 
copies. 

(The  same.)  Paris.  1802.  14  vols,  in  18mo.  (Cited  by 
Querard.) 

Choix  d'Elegies  de  I'Arioste,  traduites  de  I'ltalien, 
par  M.  Le  Tourneur,  Secretaire  ordinaire  de  Mon- 
sieur, frere  du  Roi,  et  Censeur  Royal.  Paris,  De 
rimprimerie  de  Ph.  D.  Pierres,  Imprimeur  Ordinaire 
du  Roi.     1785.    In  8vo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Yd.  7288.) 

Voyage  au  Cap  de  Bonne  Espdrance,  et  Autour  du 
Monde  avec  le  Capitaine  Cook,  et  principalement 
dans  le  Pays  des  Hottentots  et  des  Caffres,  par 
Andre  Sparrrnan,  Docteur  en  Medecine,  de  I'Acade- 
mie  des  Sciences,  et  Directeur  du  Cabinet  royal 
d'Histoire  naturelle  de  Stockholm.  Avec  Cartes, 
Figures  et  Planches  en  taille  douce.  Traduit  par 
M.  Le  Tourneur.  Paris,  chez  Buisson.  Avec  appro- 
bation et  privilege  du  Roi.  1787.  3  vols,  in  8vo. 
(Bib.  Nat.  G.  29,251.) 

Voyage  en  Allemagne,  dans  une  suite  de  lettres,  par 
M.  Le  Baron  de  Riesbeck,  traduites  de  Tanglois, 
avec  portraits,  plans  et  Carte  en  Taille-douce.  Paris, 
chez  Buisson.  Avec  approbation  et  permission. 
1787.     3  vols,  in  8vo.     (Bib.  Nat.  M.  14,060.) 

Memoires  interessans  par  Une  Lady,  traduits  de 
I'anglois  par  feu  M.  Le  Tourneur.  Londres,  et 
Paris,  chez  Leroy.  1788.  In  8vo.  (Bib.  Nat.  Y*. 
52,691-92.)     2  copies. 

Vie  de  Fi^d^ric,  Baron  de  Trenck,  traduite  de  PAUe- 
mand  par  M.  Le  Tourneur.  Berlin  et  Paris.  1788. 
3  vols,  in  8vo.     (Bib.  Nat.  M.  34,526-28.) 


APPENDIX  E  289 

Le  Jardin  Anglois,  ou  Varietes  tant  originales  que 
traduites  par  feu  M.  Le  Tourneur,  precedees  d'une 
notice  sur  sa  vie  et  ses  ouvrages,  avec  son  portrait, 
dessine  d'apres  nature  par  M.  Pujos.  Londres,  et 
Paris,  chez  Leroy.  1788.  2  vols,  in  8vo.  (Bib. 
Nat.  Ye.  12,478.) 

Le  Nord  du  Globe,  ou  Tableau  de  la  Nature,  dans  les 
Coutrees  septentrionales  ;  qui  fait  connoitre  la  terre 
dans  ses  formes,  ses  climats,  ses  qualites;  la  mer 
dans  ses  marees,  ses  ecueils,  ses  phenomenes ;  et  le 
ciel  dans  ses  meteores,  depuis  le  60°  degre  de  lati- 
tude jusqu'aux  extremites  les  plus  voisines  du  pole. 
Traduit  de  I'anglois  de  M.  Pennant.  Paris,  chez 
Theophile  Barrois  le  jeune.  1789.  Avec  approba- 
tion et  privilege  du  Roi.  2  vols,  in  8vo.  (Bib.  Nat. 
S.  32,518.) 

Le  Ministre  de  Wakefield^  par  Goldsmith.  (Sperate, 
miseri ;  cavete,  felices.)  Paris,  chez  Corbet.  1837. 
2  vols,  in  12mo.     (Bib.  Nat.  Y^.  11,469-70.) 

(The  cover  bears  Le  Tourneur's  name,  thus :  Le 
Ministre  de  Wakefield,  d'Olivier  Goldsmith ;  traduit 
par  Letourneur.  Orne  de  gravures.  Paris,  chez  les 
Marchands  de  Nouveautes.     1837.) 

(This  is  a  reprint  of  an  anonymous  edition  published 
by  Pissot  &  Desaint,  Paris,  1767,  which  has  been 
attributed  to  Mine,  de  Montessan,  to  Rose,  and  to 
Charlos.  (Barbier  &  Querard.)  The  style  of  the 
translation  is  unlike  that  of  Le  Tourneur  and  it  is 
probably  due  to  an  error  that  his  name  appears  on 
the  cover  of  the  edition  of  1837.) 


APPENDIX  F 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Periodicals : 

Annee  Littdraire.     Paris,  1754-1790.    In  8vo. 

1768,  vol.  5,  p.  26 ;  1769,  vol.  2,  p.  217 ;  vol.  7,  p.  195 ; 

1770,  vol.  5,  p.  23;  vol.  8,  p.  73 ;  1771,  vol.  2,  p.  326 ; 
vol.  3,  p.  249 ;  1772,  vol.  3,  p.  28 ;  vol.  4,  p.  69 ;  1776, 
vol.  2,  pp.  30,  217  ;  vol.  4,  p.  73  ;  vol.  6,  p.  145 ;  1778, 
vol.  6,  p.  73 ;  vol.  7,  p.  73 ;  1779,  vol.  6,  p.  289 ;  vol. 
8,  p.  73 ;  1780,  vol.  3,  p.  289 ;  1781,  vol.  3,  p.  3 ;  1782, 
vol.  1,  p.  73 ;  vol.  2,  pp.  114,  175 ;  1784,  vol.  1,  p.  97 ; 
1785,  vol.  4,  p.  335;  1786,  vol.  2,  p.  233;  1787,  vol.  6, 
p.  49 ;  1788,  vol.  1,  p.  49 ;  vol.  2,  p.  281 ;  vol.  4, 
p.  227 ;  vol.  8,  p.  210. 

Annonces,  affiches,  et  avis  divers.   1751-1811.    In  8vo. 

(Affiche  de  Paris).     1788,  Jan.  28. 
L'Avant  Coureur.     1760-1773.     In  8vo. 

1769,  pp.  605,   285,   559;   1770,  pp.  201,   512,  830; 

1771,  pp.  157,  333. 
LeBabillard.    1778-1779.    In  8vo. 

1778,  vol.  2,  p.  326. 
Bibliothfeque   des   Sciences  et  des  Beaux  Arts.     La 
Haye,  1754-1780.     pet.  in  8vo. 
1769,  vol.  31,  p.  40;  1770,  vol.  33,  p.  105;  1771,  vol. 
35,  p.  345;  vol.  36,  p.  393;   1776,  vol.  4,  52d  part, 
p.  484. 

290 


APPENDIX  F  291 

Correspondance   secrete,  politique  et  litteraire,  1775- 

1785.     Londres,  1787.     18  vols,  in  8vo. 

vol.  3,  pp.  269,  416 ;  vol.  7,  pp.  109, 179 ;  vol.  9,  p.  74- 
L'Esprit  des  Journaux  fran^ais  et  etrangers.     1772- 

1818.     In  12ino.     1776,  p.  432  ;  1788,  vol.  3. 
Gazette  Litteraire.     1764,  1765. 
Gentleman's  Magazine.     London,  1766. 
Hatin,  Bibliographie  de  la  presse  pdriodique.   Paris.  In 

18mo. 
Interraediaire  des  Chercheurs.     1882,  Dec.  12 ;   1884, 

Aug.  10,  Sept.  25. 
Journal  Anglois.    1775, 1778.   1776,  vol.  2,  pp.  257, 384, 

et  passim. 
Journal  des  Dames.     1759-1778. 

1775,  vol.  2,  p.  218. 
Journal  des  Debats.     1894,  Nov.  13,  27. 
Journal   Encyclopedique.      Bouillon,    1760-1773.      In 

12mo.    1762,  Jan. ;  1768,  vol.  7,  Pt.  II.,  p.  38 ;   1769, 

vol.  4,  p.  297 ;  vol.  6,  pp.  55,  209  ;  vol.  7,  p.  138  ;  1770, 

vol.  8,  pp.  53,  465 ;  1771,  vol.  2,  p.  459  ;  vol.  4,  p.  139  ; 

vol.  5,  p.  300 ;  vol.  6,  pp.  18,  182  ;  1772,  vol.  l,p.  261 ; 

vol.  4,  p.  305;  vol.  5,  p.  472. 
Journal  Etranger. 

1760,  Sept. ;  1761,  Dec. ;  1762,  Jan.,  Feb.,  Apr.,  July. 
Journal  fran9ais,  anglois  et  italien. 

1778,  Pt.  IL,  pp.  32,  64  (No.  1). 

No.  2,  p.  81. 
Journal  general  de  France.     1785-1792.     10  vols,  in 

4to.     1788,  Feb.  7,  17,  19 ;  Mar.  29  ;  Sept.  11. 
Journal  de  Normandie.     Rouen.     1785-1791.     In  4to. 

1788,  Feb.  9 ;  Apr.  2,  9,  30 ;  Nov.  1. 
Journal  de  Paris.     1777-1811.     In  4to. 

1777,  Jan.  29,  Mar.  16,  23,  24,  25 ;  1778,  Oct.  8,  15 ; 


292  APPENDIX  F 

1779,  Jan.  16,   Feb.  12,   26,  Mar.  21,  Apr.  5,   18, 

May  3,  29,  June  9,  29,  July  24,  Aug.  7,  Sept.  13, 

21,  Oct.  14,  Nov.  1,  3,  29,  Dec.  20;  1780,  Apr.  9; 

1781,  Apr.  12  ;  1782,  Dec.  3;  1784,  Mar.  13,  May  16; 

1788,  Jan.  26,  30,  31,  Feb.  3,  July  19,  Oct.  15. 
Journal  de  Politique  et  de  Littdrature. 

1776,  vol.  1,  p.  43 ;   vol.  3,  p.  597 ;    1777,  vol.  3,  p. 

331 ;  1778,  vol.  1,  pp.  50,  96,  vol.  2. 
Journal  des  Savants,  1665.     In  4to. 

1768  ;  1771  passim ;  1779,  pp.  429,  857 ;  1780,  p.  639  ; 

1781,  pp.  442,  526;    1782,  pp.  443,  731;  1783,  p.  55; 

1784,  p.  210.  ^ 

Journal  des  Science^  et  des  Beaux  Arts,  1768-1782.    In 

8vo ;  1762,  Feb.,  Nov. ;  1764,  May,  June,  Sept.,  Dec. ; 

1768,  vol.  3;  1771,  vol.  4,  p.  356;  1776,  vol.2,  pp. 
229,  337;  1779,  vol.  6,  p.  3. 

Meraoires  Secrets.     1762,  Feb.  20. 

Mem.  Soc.  Arch,  de  Valognes.     1885,  III.,  pp.  49-59. 

Article  :  Le  Tourneur  by  Aug.  Grou. 
M^moires  de  Trevoux.     1770,  Nov.,  Dec. 
Mercure  de  France.     1724-1820.     In  12mo. 

1769,  May,  June,  Aug.,  Sept. ;  1771,  Jan.,  May ;  1772, 
Aug.;   1778,  Aug.;    1781,  May;    1782,  July;   1784, 

x^ept. ;  1785,  Mar.,  Aug. ;  1786,  June ;  1788,  June. 
Monthly  Review.     1769.     p.  40. 

N^crologie  des  hommes  cdlfebres  de  France.    1764-1766. 
Le  Pour  et  le  Contre.     Paris,  1738. 
Revue  Fran9aise.    1830. 


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A 

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Canfield,  Dorothea 

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traduit  de  I'anglois.     Paris,  1751. 
Clarisse  Harlowe,  traduction  nouvelle  et  seule  com- 
plete par  M.  Barre.     Paris,  1845. 
Clarisse  Harlowe,  de  Samuel  Richardson,  par  Jules 

Janin.     Paris,  1846. 
Riesbeck,  le  baron  de 

Brief e  eines  reisenden  Franzosen  iiber  Deutschland 

an  seinen  Briider  an  Paris.     Zurick,  1783. 
Travels  in  Germany  in  a  Series  of  Letters,  translated 

by  Paul  Henry  Maty.     London,  1787. 
Lettres  d'un  Voyageur  Fran9ais   sur  I'Allemagne 

enrichies  de  notes  et  de  corrections  (par  Bertholde- 

Fr^d^ric  Haller,  patricien  de  Berne).    (Hollande), 

1785. 
Lettres  sur  I'Allemagne.    Vienne,  1787. 


GENERAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY  301 

Rutlidge,  le  chevalier  de 

Observations  k  MM.  de  rAcademie  k  I'occasion  d'une 
certaine  lettre  de  M.  de  Voltaire.    Paris,  1776. 


Sabatier,  Antoine 

Dictionnaire  des  trois  siecles  de  la  litterature  fran- 
(jaise.     Paris,  1801. 
Saint  Marc  Girardin 

Cours  de  litterature  dramatique.     Paris,  1876. 
Sand,  George 

Histoire  de  ma  Vie.     Paris,  1854. 
Comme  il  vous  plaira.     1856. 
Saunders,  Bailey 

Life  and  letters  of  James  Macpherson.     London, 
1894. 
Sedaine 

(Euvres.    Paris,  1831. 
Shakespeare 

Works,  Johnson  and  Steevens,  3d  ed.    London,  1785. 
(Euvres,'  traduites    par   Benjamin  Laroche.      Paris, 

1844. 
(Euvres,  traduites  par  Fran9ois  Victor  Hugo.    Paris, 

1859. 
(Euvres,  traduites  par  Emile  Montegut.    Paris,  1867. 
Macbeth,  texte  critique,  avec  la  traduction  en  regard 
par  Alex.  Beljarae.     Paris,  1897. 
Sparrman,  Andrew 

A  Voyage  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  towards  the 
Antarctic  Polar  Circle  and  Round  the  World,  from 
1772  to  1776,  by  Andrew  Sparrman.  Translated 
from  the  Swedish  original.     London,  1785. 


802  GENERAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Stael,  Mme.  de 

De  la  Litterature,     Paris,  1800. 
Stapfer,  Paul 

Shakespeare  et  I'Antiquite.     Paris,  1883. 
Stendhal 

Racine  et  Shakespeare.     Paris,  1856. 
Suard,  Jean,  Bapt-Ant. 

Varietds  litt^raires.    Paris,  1768. 

T 

Texte,  Joseph 

Jean  Jacques  Rousseau  et  le  Cosmopolitanisme  dans 
la  litterature  fran^aise.    Paris,  1895. 
Thomas,  E. 

Montpellier,  Tableau  historique  et  descriptif.    Mont- 
pellier,  1853. 
Thomas,  W. 

Le  poete,  Edward  Young.     Paris,  1895. 
Thomson,  James 

Works.     London,  1763. 

Les  Saisons,  pofeme  traduit  de  I'anglois  de  Thomson 
(Mme.  de  Bontems).    Paris,  1759. 
Tombo,  Rudolf 

Ossian  in  Germany.     New  York,  1901. 
Trenck,  Frederic,  baron  de 

Merkwtirdige  Lebensgeschichte.     Berlin,  1787. 
Vie  de  Frederic,  baron   de   Trenck,  ecrite  par  lui- 
meme  et  traduite  de  I'Allemand  en  fran9ais  par 
M.  le  baron  de  B^^x  (Bock).    Metz,  1787. 


GENERAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY  803 

V 

Vigny,  Alfred  de 

Lettre  sur  la  soiree  du  24  Oct.  1829. 

Othello.     Paris,  1829. 
Villemain,  Abel  rran9ois 

Tableau  de  la  litterature  au  XVIII«  sifecle.    Paris, 
1852. 
Voltaire 

(Euvres,  ed.  Didot.    Paris,  1862. 

Y 

Young,  Edward 

Works.     London,  1765. 

Satyres  d' Young,  ou  1* Amour  de  la  Renommee,  pas- 
sion universelle.  Traduction  libre  de  I'anglois 
par  M.  Bertin.    Paris,  1787. 


INDEX 


Addison,  49,  156. 

Affiches,     Annonces     et     Avis 

divers,  12  n. 
Aicard,   Jean,   251    n. 
d'Aiguillon,    la   duchesse,    89. 
Amants  Malheur eux,   Les,   by 

Bacular  d'Arnaud,   174. 
VAmitie,  107. 

Ammingait  et  A  jut,   105,   106. 
Amours     de     Groerdand,     Les, 

105. 
Andromaque,  164. 
Anglomania,   156;    growth  in 

France,  161-162. 
AnrtAe     Litter  aire,     Choix      de 

Contes,   108;    Clarissa   Har- 

lowe,    133,    134,    135,     147, 

148;   Discours  Moraux,  30; 

Hervey's    Meditations,    87; 

Le   Tourneur's    death,     13; 

epitaph,     15;     Ossian,    91; 

Shakespeare,  213,  214,  215, 

216,  245;     Voyage    au  Cap 

de   Bonne    Esperance,    139; 

Young's  Night  Thoughts,  71. 
Antony  and  Cleopatra,  224. 
Apologia  de  Shakespeart   (sic) 

en  reponse  d,  la  critique  de 

Voltaire,  by  Mrs.  Montague, 

207  n. 
Arctic    Zoology,    by    Thomas 

Pennant,    11,    140-142. 
d'Argental,    le    comte,    death. 


14;  subscriber  to  transla- 
tion of  Shakespeare,  178; 
Voltaire's  letters  to,  194— 
197,  200. 

Argillan,  ou  le  Fanatisme  des 
Croisades,  by  Fontaine-Mal- 
herbe,  177  n. 

Ariosto,  4,  99,  135-137,  151  n. 

Aristotle,  186. 

d'Arnaud,  Bacular,  173,  174  n. 

Arnauld,  Oscar,  Fils  d' Os- 
sian,  98  n. 

Arnoult,  Le  Baron  de  Trench 
ou  le  prisonnier  prussien, 
147  n. 

As  You  Like  It,  250. 

Atala,  by  Chateaubriand,  75. 

Athalie,  206. 

Author,  The,  by  Charles 
Churchill,  110,  113. 

L'Avant  Coureur,  Le  Courtisan 
Hermite,  45;  Hervey,  87. 

Avenel,  241. 

Babillard,   Le,    211-213. 
Baour-Lormian,  97. 
Bardes,  Les,  by  Lesueur,  98  n. 
Baretti,   Joseph,   207. 
Barine,  Arvede,  96  n. 
Barmecides,  Les,  by  La  Harpe, 

205  n. 
Barr6,  translation  of  Clarissa 

Harlowe,  134  n. 


305 


INDEX 


Beljame,    Alexandre,    229    n, 

242. 
Bernhardt,  Sarah,  251  n. 
Bertin,  Satyres  d' Young,  73  n. 
Bertini,  Othello,  244  n. 
Bihliotheque     des     Sciences     et 

des  Beaux  Arts,  Hervey,  87; 

Shakespeare,    176,    217. 
Biographia  Britannica,  51. 
Bissy,  le  comte  de,  47. 
Bock,  le  baron  de,  146. 
Boissy,   Louis  de,   162  n. 
'Bonheur,  Le,  107. 
Briefe  einer  reisenden  Franzo- 

sen    iiber     Deuischland,     an 

seinen     Bruder     an     Paris, 

144  n,  145   n,    146   n. 
Briefe  ilber   das   Monchwesen, 

by  Gaspar  Riesbeck,  144  n. 
Brumoy,   Pere,   212. 
Buffon,    14,    141   n. 
Burnouf,  6. 
Bvsiris,  by  Edward  Young,  67. 

Cadet  de  Famille,  Le,  by  Fon- 

taine-Malherbe,  177  n. 
Candidate,     The,     by    Charles 

Churchill,  110  n. 
Canfield,    Dorothea,    163   n. 
Carr6,  Jerome,   191. 
Carthon,     translated     by    the 

Duchesse    d'Aguillon,    89. 
Cathu4lina,   151   n. 
Catu61an,    le    comte   de,  177, 

Appendix  C, 
Cellini,  147. 
Centaur    not    Fabulous,    The, 

by  Edward  Young,  66,  70. 
Cesarotti,    translation   of   Os- 

sian,  94,  97. 
Chants    de    Selma,     Les,     by 

Ossian,  98. 
Charles   II.,  court   of,   181    n. 
Charles    V.,   Eloge  de,   by  La 


Harpe,    27   n,   28;    by    Le 

Tourneur,    21,    27-30,     33; 

Robertson's    History  of,    4, 

92,  104,  109,  113. 
Chasles,  Philarete,  166. 
Chateaubriand,     influence     of 

Ossian    in    his    Atala,    75; 

Rene,   75;    Ginie  du  Chris- 

tianisme,  98;    Shakespeare, 

248,  249. 
Chatelet,    Mme.    du,    31    n. 
Ch6nier,   Andrd,    147   n. 
Ch^nier,    Marie    Joseph,    244. 
Choix  de  Conies  et  de  Poisies 

erses  traduits  de  Vanglois  -par 

Le  Tourneur,  90,  92  n,  104- 

106,  108  n,  113  n. 
Choix    d'EUgies    de    I'Arioste, 

traduites  de  Vitclien  par  M, 

Le    Tourneur,    135-137. 
Choix     de     Lettres     de     Lord 

Chesterfield,  by  Peyron,  86  n. 
Christianisme,  Examen  de  V  Evi- 
dence intrinseque  du,  114  n. 
Churchill,  Charles,  110. 
Cid,  Le,   163. 
Cinna,   190,  205  n. 
Cinque  Canti,  Le,  by  Ariosto, 

137,  152. 
Clairaut,    Alexandre,     30     n; 

6loge  de,  30-32,  151  n. 
Clarissa   Harlowe,    4,    11,    17, 

104,  125-135,  146,  147,  152, 

218. 
Clement,   Nicholas,    155,   160. 
Cleopatra,  167,  170. 
Collection   de    podmes    anglois, 

italiens,    aUemands,   espagr^ 

ols,  by  Peyron,  86  n. 
Collini,  144  n. 
Collins,  46. 

Comddie  larmoyante,  170. 
Comme    il    vous    plaira,     by 

George  Sand,  250  u. 


INDEX 


307 


Confidences,  Les,  by  Lamar- 
tine,  98. 

Congreve,  86  n,  181  n. 

Conjectures  sur  la  Composi- 
tion Originale,  by  Edward 
Young,  67,  68. 

Conjon,  M.  de,  15. 

Conlath,  89. 

Connal  et  Crimora,  88  n. 

Conte  d'AvrU,  Le,  by  Auguste 
Dorchain,  251  n. 

Contemplations  on  the  Night, 
by  Hervey,  77. 

Contemplations  on  the  Starry 
Heavens,  by  Hervey,  77. 

Corinne,  by  Mme.  de  Stael,  75. 

Coriolanus,   213  n,   224. 

Corneille,  admired  Lucan,  71 ; 
genius  compared  to  that  of 
Shakespeare,  190 ;  great 
dramatist,  158,  192,  193, 
195,  200;  in  England,  163; 
Le  Tourneur's  likeness  to, 
19;  Shakespeare  preferred 
to,  162,  196,  204,  205; 
Shakespeare  in  country  of, 
180 ;  Voltaire 's  commentary 
on,  203. 

Corneille  and  Racine  in  Eng- 
land, by  Dorothea  Can- 
field,    163    n. 

Correspondance  litteraire,  phv- 
losophique  et  critique,  by 
Grimm,  Diderot,  73  n,  89  n, 
208  n. 

Correspondance  secrbte,  politi- 
que et  litteraire,  Eloge  de 
du  Muy,  34-37;  Le  Tour- 
neur's   Letter,    197. 

Cours  anolytique  de  litterature 
generate,  by  Lemercier,  248 
n. 

Cours  de  litterature,  by  La 
Harpe,  95  n. 


Cours    de   littSrature   dramati- 

que,  by  Geoffroy,  248  n. 
Cours    de    litterature    dramati- 

que,  by  Lemercier,  248  n. 
Courtisan  Hermite,  Le,  44,  45. 
Cromwell,  249. 
Curiosites        Bibliographiques, 

47  n. 
Cuthona,    translated    by    the 

Abb6  Suard,  89. 
Cymbeline,  167  n,  170  n,  224; 

imitated  by  D6jaur6,  244  n. 

D'Alembert,  defends  Corneille 
and  Racine,  201,  207,  244; 
reads  Voltaire's  letter  to  the 
Academy,  201,  202;  sur 
I'art  de  traduire,   59  n. 

Dar   Thula,   89. 

Davenant's   Tempest,    157    n. 

David,  116. 

Dedication  to  M.  Voltaire, 
Young's,  65. 

Defoe,  156. 

D^jaur6,  imitation  of  Cymbe- 
line, 244  n. 

Delain,   Paul,   251   n. 

De  Rozoi,  244  n. 

Deschamps,  ^fimile,  249.    » 

Description  of  a  Night  in 
October,  Ossian's,  90. 

Desmoulins,   Camille,   75. 

Despreaux,  181  n. 

Destouches,  N^ricauld,  156- 
158,  162. 

Dialogues  between  Theron  and 
Aspasia,  by  James  Hervey, 
77  n. 

Diderot,  72,  73  n,  127,  208  n. 

Discant  on  Creation,  A,  Her- 
vey's,   77. 

Discours  Moraux,  Le  Tour- 
neur's, 3,  4,  7,  8,  21-27,  28, 
30,  32,  43,  44,  151. 


INDEX 


Discours  sur  la  Poisie  Dramati- 
que,    Marmontel's,    173. 

Discours  sur  la  Tragedie  a 
V  occasion  des  Machabees, 
etc.,  by  Houdard  de  la 
Motte,   158  n. 

Disquisitions  on  Several  Sub- 
jects,   by   Jenyns,    114   n. 

Dissipateur,  Le,  by  Des- 
touches,  157. 

Distressed    Mother,    The,    164. 

Dorchain,    Auguste,   251   n. 

Douin,  translated  Othello,  174 
n. 

Drouais,    14. 

Dryden,  157,  181. 

Du  Belloy,  170. 

Ducis,  2,  170-174;  Hamlet, 
2,  171-172;  King  John, 
172,  243;  King  Lear,  172, 
243;  Macbeth,  172,  243; 
Othello,  172,  243;  Romeo 
and  Juliet,  2,  172 ;  replaces 
Voltaire   in  Academy,   243. 

Duclos,  Cesar  Ren6  Guyot,  13. 

Dumas,  Alexandre,  251  n, 

Duval,  Georges,  251  n. 

Ebert,  76. 

I'J^cdle  des  Peres,  by  Fon- 
taine-Malherbe,  177  n. 

Elegy,  Gray's,  84-86. 

Eloge  de  Charles  V.,  rot  de 
France,  by  Le  Tourneur, 
21,  27-30,  33;  by  La 
^  Harpe,  27  n,    28. 

Eloge  de  Clair aut,  30-31,  151  n. 

Eloge  du  Maricfial  du  Muy, 
^  by  Le  Tourneur,  32-37,  151. 

Eloge  de  Richardson,  Diderot's, 
127. 

English  drama,  French  igno- 
rance of,  155  ;  slow  develop- 
ment   in    France,    164-165. 


Epicharsis  et  Niron,   by  L&- 
^  gouv6,  244  n. 
Epitre     h     Lord     Lansdowne, 

,  Young's,  67. 
Epitre  aux  Pauvres,   by  Fon- 
,  taine-Malherbe,  177  n. 
Epitre   a    Voltaire,    Le   Tour- 

neur's,  65. 
Ermenonville,     Voyage    h,    Le 

Tourneur's,  37-42, 
Erschenburg,  221. 
Essay  on  Dramatic  Art,  Mer- 

cier's,  170,  173,  209  n,  244. 
Ejtimation  de  la  Vie,  67. 
Etudes  Poitiques  Fran^aises  et 

t^trangeres,  by    ^mile    Des- 
^  champs,  249. 
Etudes    sur    Shakespeare,    by 

Philarite    Chasles,     166    n. 
Eudoxie,  ou  le  beau  projet  de 

solitude,  105-106,  108. 
Euripides,  186,  201,  215. 
Eusebe,  65,  66,  70. 

FidditS,  La,   135,   137. 
Fingal,  88  n,  89. 
Florio,  240. 
Fontaine-Malherbe,  31,  32  n, 

177  n. 
Fontanes,  96. 
Foscolo,   Ugo,   76. 
Fouquet,    155. 

Fourbe,  Le,  Congreve's,  trans- 
lated  by    Peyron,    86   n. 
Fragments  of  Ancient  Poetry, 

88  n. 
Francois     II.,    by     Pr^ident 

Renault,    170. 
Free   Inquiry  into  the  Nature 

and  Origin  of  Evil,  Jenjnas's, 

114  n. 
French    drama    in    England, 

163. 
Fr6ron,  71,  245. 


INDEX 


309 


FrivoliU,  La,  161,  162  n. 
Funirailles      d'Ardbert,      Les, 
86  n. 

Garrick,  171,  181  n,  204,  205, 
208  n. 

Gazette   litteraire,    89    n. 

Genie  du  Christianisme,  by- 
Chateaubriand,    98. 

Gentleman's   Magazine,    51    n. 

Geoffrey,  248.     "• 

Gerbier,  14. 

Gerville,  6. 

Geschichte  der  Deutschen,  by 
Riesbeck,  144  n. 

Gessner,  14. 

Girodet-Trioson,  98  n. 

Gluck,  14. 

Goethe,  97. 

Gotham,  by  Charles  Churchill, 
110  n. 

Grave  Yard  School  of  poets, 
46,  102. 

Gray,  46,  84-86. 

Greek  Theatre,  by  Pere  Bru- 
moy,  212. 

Grimm,  72,  73  n;  account  of 
Shakespeare  quarrel,  208- 
209;    on  Sedaine,  244. 

Grou,  Auguste,   13. 

Guillot,  Felix,  5. 

Guizot,   221,  241,   248  n. 

Haller,  Bertholde  Fr^d^ric, 
145  n. 

Hamlet,  Ducis's,  2, 171 ;  Hugo's, 
233-234;  La  Place's,  167  n; 
Le  Tourneur's,  224,  232- 
233 ;  Maurice's,  251  n ;  Pro- 
vost's, 162;  Sand's,  250; 
Voltaire's,    230-231. 

Hanmer,  184.  ^ 

Haraucourt,   Edmond,   251   n. 

Hardy,  Alexandre,  158. 


Havard,  241. 

HOnault,  President,  170. 

Henry  VI.,  167,  215. 

Hernani,  249. 

Hervey,  James,  4,  10,  73  n, 
77-84,  86-88,  92,  93,  99, 
101,  108,  113  n,  174,  176, 
192. 

Hervieu,  Anne,  6. 

Histoire  d' Angleterre,  by  Le 
Tourneur,  116-118. 

Histoire  de  mes  Idies,  by 
Edgar  Quinet,  98  n. 

Histoire  du  regne  de  Vem- 
pereur  Charles  Quint,  113 
n. 

Histoire  de  Richard  Savage, 
suivie  de  la  Vie  de  Thomson, 
by  Le  Tourneur,    109   n. 

Histoire  de  ma  Vie,  by  George 
Sand,  98  n. 

Histoire  du  Thidtre  Frangais, 
by  Hippolyte  Lucas,  162  n. 

Histoire  Universelle,   116. 

History  of  Charles  V.,  Robert- 
son's 4,  92,  104,  109,  113. 

History  of  Quadrupeds,  by 
Pennant,   141   n. 

Homer,  89,  94,  97,  98. 

L' Homme  et  la  Femme  sen- 
sibles,    Mackenzie's,  86  n. 

Hugo,  Francois  Victor,  Ham- 
let, 230,  233-234,  235; 
Romeo  and  Juliet,  237-239; 
works  of  Shakespeare,  250. 

Hugo,  Victor,  249. 

L' Influence  de  Shakespeare  sur 
le  Thedtre  Frangais,  by 
Albert      Lacroix,      155     n. 

Imagines,  ou  la  Gageure  in- 
discrete,   DOjaurO's,    244    n. 

Ines,  by  Houdard  de  la  Motte, 
158  n. 


810 


INDEX 


Jane  Gray,  Mme.  de  Stael's,  75. 

Janin,   Jules,    135. 

Jar  din  Anglois,  Le,  ou  Variites 
tant  originales  que  traduites, 
4,  6,  21  n,  31  n,  32  n,  44, 
120  n,  137,    151,    152. 

Jenyns,  Soame,   114. 

Jerningham,  86  n. 

Jeu,  Le,  107. 

Jeune  Fille  SMuite,  La,  44, 
45,    151    n. 

Jeux  de  Calliope,  86  n. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  4,  111,  184, 
220  n,  226  n. 

Journal  Anglois,  213. 

Journal  des  Dibats,  96  n, 
248  n. 

Journal  Encyclopedique,  27  n. ; 
Discours  Moraux,  30  n; 
Ossian,  91  n,  97  n;  Savage, 
113  n. 

Journal  Etranger,  47,  88,  89. 

Journal  Frangois,  anglois  et 
italien,    209,    210. 

Journal  gen&rale  de  la  France, 
13  n. 

Journal  de  Normandie,  13  n, 
14,  15. 

Journal  de  Paris,  12  n,  13  n, 
16,  95,  96  n,  217. 

Journal  de  politique  et  de  lit- 
ter ature,   216,   242  n. 

Journal  des  Savants,  26,  89  n, 
177  n,  216. 

Jours,   Les,  73. 

Julius  Ccesar,  La  Place,  167  n, 
170  n;  Le  Tourneur,  176, 
210,  224,  227,  228;  Vol- 
taire on,    190,   221. 

Jusserand,  J,  J.,  20  n,  155  n, 
161  n,  185  n,  250. 

Kind,  John,  Young  in  Ger- 
many, 76  n. 


King  John,  172,  243. 

King  Lear,  Duels,  172,  243; 
Lacroix,  251  n;  Le  Tour- 
neur,  224;     Loti,   251   n. 

Klopstock,  97. 

La  Bruy^re,  108. 

Lacroix,  Albert,  155  n. 

Lacroix,  Jules,  251  n. 

La  Fontaine,  17. 

La  Fosse,  155. 

La  Harpe,  Barm6cides,  205  n; 
directs  Journal  de  politique, 
217;  defends  Shakespeare, 
207,  244;  Eloge  de  Charles 
v.,  27n,  28;  Menzicof,  205 
n. ;  Ossian,  95,  97;  Vol- 
taire's letter  to,  201 ;  Young, 
71. 

Lamartine,  75,  76,  98,  249, 
250. 

Landscape  gardens,  French 
and  English  compared,  38- 
39. 

La  Place,  Antoine  de,  2,  69, 
163,    166-170,    171. 

Laroche,    Benjamin,    250. 

La    Rochefoucauld,    24. 

Last  Judgment,  The,  Young's, 
65,  66. 

Lathmon,  90. 

Lathmore,  89. 

Le  Blanc,   l'Abb6,    162. 

Legouv6,  244  n. 

Lemercier,  248. 

Leopardi,  76,  98. 

Le  Sage,  6. 

Lesueur,  98  n. 

Le  Tourneur,  Guillaume,  6. 

Le  Tourneur,  Louis  Eugene 
F^licien,   13. 

Le  Tourneur,  Mme.,  13. 

Le  Tourneur,  Thomas,  6. 

Letters,  Hcrvey's,  78,  84. 


INDEX 


811 


Lettre  sur  la  TragMie,  Vol- 
taire's,  160  n,   230. 

Lettres  Angloises,  107,  108, 
151  n. 

Lettres  Angloises,  ou  Histoire 
de  Clarisse  Harlowe,  by 
the    Abb6    Prevost,    126. 

Lettres  sur  V  Allemagne,  145  n. 

Lettres  sur  les  Allemands,  by 
CoUini,  144  n. 

Lettres  d'un  Frangois,   162  n. 

Lettres  Morales  sur  le  Plaisir, 
67,  70. 

Lettres  Philosophiques,  Vol- 
taire's,  2,    160,   230  n. 

Lettres  d'un  Voyageur  frangais 
sur  V  AUemagne,  145  n. 

lAfe  and  Letters  of  James  Mac- 
pherson,  by  Bailey  Saunders, 
96  n. 

Linnseus,  138. 

Litterature,  De  la,  by  Mme. 
de  Stael,  97,  98  n,  246  n, 
247  n. 

Litterature,  et  des  Litterateurs, 
De  la,  by  Mercier,  209  n. 

Lonce,    Marguerite,    5. 

Lounsbury,  Thomas,  161  n, 
185  n,  206  n,  208  n,  250. 

Lucain,  71. 

Lucas,  Hippolyte,  162  n. 

Luines,   Cardinal   de,    14. 

Macbeth,  Beljame,  229  n,  242; 
Ducis,  172,  243;  Lacroix, 
251  n;  La  Place,  167;  Le 
Tourneur,  224,  229,  242; 
Richepin,  251  n;  Voltaire, 
203. 

Machiavellism,  26. 

Mackenzie,  86  n. 

Macpherson,  James,  88,  92  n, 
94,  95,  96  n. 

Mariages  prematures,  Des,  107. 


Marion  Delorme,  249. 

Marmontel,  104;  Discours  sur 
la  Poesie  dramatique,  173; 
campaigne  vs.  Shakespeare, 
244 ;  statements  concern- 
ing   Shakespeare,    180-181. 

Maty,  Paul  Henry,  Travels 
in  Germany,   144  n. 

Maupertuis,  31  n. 

Meditations  and  Contempla- 
tions among  the  Tombs,  by 
James  Hervey,  77-84. 

Meditations  d' Hervey,  tra- 
duites  de  Vanglois  par  Le 
Tourneur,  77. 

Meditations,  Lamartine's,  76. 

Meditations  in  a  Flower  Gar- 
den, 86. 

Megere  apprivoisee,  La,  by 
Paul  Delain,  251  n. 

Melanges  de  Litterature,  d' His- 
toire et  de  Philosophic,  by 
D'AIembert,  59  n. 

Memoires  interessans  par  une 
Lady,  122-125,  151  n. 

Memoires  secrets,   89   n. 

Memoires  sociologiques  et 
archeologiques  de  Valognes, 
13  n. 

Menzicof,  by  La  Harpe,  205  n. 

Mercier,  S6bastien,  Essay  on 
Dramatic  Art,  170,  173, 
209,  244;  friend  of  Le 
Tourneur,  12,  13,  16-18, 
38 ;  supports  Shakespeare, 
186,  209,  244;  Timon 
d'Athenes,  244;  Tombeaux 
de  Verone,  173. 

Mercure  de  France,  Le  Courti- 
san  Her  mite,  45;  Night 
Thoughts,  70,  71;  Shake- 
speare, 216,  217  n,  242, 
Appendix  D. 

Merkwiirdige  Lebensgeschichte, 


312 


INDEX 


by  the  Baron  de   Trenck, 
146  n. 

Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  167, 

170. 
Meurice,  Paul,  251  n. 
M6zieres,    Alfred,    250. 
Michel,  Francisque,  250. 
Miohiels,    Alfred,  Histoire  des 

Idies   Litteraires   en  France 

au  XIX'  Siecle,   185  n. 
Middleton,  138. 
Milton,  John,  26,  44,  46,  156. 
Ministre  Berger,   Le,   105  n. 
Ministre  Philosophe,  Le,  105  n. 
Minona,  Ossian's,  91. 
Minvane,    Ossian's,    90. 
Moli^re,    158,    163,    180,    181, 

204. 
Montague,  Mrs.,  207,  221. 
Montaigne  240,  Appendix  B. 
Mont^gut,     Einile,   250. 
Montesquieu,  161. 
Monthly  Review,  50,  51,  05  n. 
Montpellier,      Tableau     histo- 

rique  et   descriptif,     by     E. 

Thomas,  74  n. 
Morel,  I.6on,  113  n. 
Motte,    Houdard    de  la,  158 

159. 
Mounet  Sully,  251  n. 
Muaset,  Alfred  de,  91, 98, 134  n. 
Muy,    Eloge  du  Marichal  du, 

32-37,   151  n. 

Namouna,  134  n. 

Napoleon,  97. 

Ndcrologie  des  Homines  c&,^- 
bres  de  France,  30,  31. 

Night  Thoughts,  Young's, 
beauties  and  defects,  53- 
57;  Le  Tourneur's  transla- 
tion of,  57-65;  named,  4, 
15,  44,  46,  47,  48,  66,  76, 
77,  78,  79,  174. 


Nord  du  Globe,  Le,  140-142, 
151  n. 

Nouvelle   Heloise,    126. 

Nouvelles  Lettres  persanes,  86 
n. 

Nuits  Angloises,  Les,  73. 

Nuits  d' Young,  Les,  traduitea 
de  I'Anglois  par  M.  Le 
Tourneur,  47,  50,  54,  55, 
59,  67,  72,  73  n,  87,  88,  103, 
133  n,  198,  241. 

Nuits  Parisiennes,  Les,  73. 

(Edipe,    Voltaire's,    159. 

(Euvres  Diverses  du  Docteur 
Young,  traduites  de  I'An- 
glois par  M.  Le  Tourneur, 
47,    67-70. 

Oithona,   Ossian's,   89. 

Oscar,  Fils  d'Ossian,  98  n. 

Ossian,  influence  in  France, 
97-98;  in  Germany,  96- 
97;  named,  3,  4,  11,  17,  101, 
103,  126,  151  n,  218,  241, 
254,  255,  257;  translated 
into  French  byLe  lourneur, 
90-96 ;  by  Suard  and  Turgot, 
88-90. 

Ossian,  Fils  de  Fingal  .  .  . 
Poisics  Galliques  traduites 
.  .  .  par  M.  Le  Tourneur, 
92. 

Othello,  analyzed  by  La  Place, 
167;  by  Pr6vost,  162;  imi- 
tated by  Aicard,  251  n ;  Ber- 
tini,  244  n;  translated  by 
Douin,  174;  Ducis,  172, 
243;  Le  Tourneur,  210, 
217,  224,  226,  270-274; 
Voltaire,  203;    Vigny,  249. 

Ou,  trouver  des  Amis,  105  n. 

Pamila,  ou,  la  Vertu  ricom- 
pensie,   125. 


INDEX 


313 


Paradise  Lost,   44,    151. 
Paraphrase     of    Part     of    the 

Book  of  Job,   Young's,   65, 

66,  67  n. 
Pascal,  53. 
Pass6  et  Prisent,   by  Charles 

de   R^musat,    248    n. 
Pelouze,  6. 
Pennant,     Thomas,     140-142, 

151    n. 
Pensies   Angloises   sur    divers 

sujets     de     religion     et     de 

morale,    46. 
Pensies  sur  divers  sujets,   65, 

66. 
Persian  Tales,   143  n. 
Peyron,  Jean  Frangois,  86. 
Pindemonte,    76. 
Plautus,  183. 
Poetry  of  melancholy,  3,  46, 

47,  75,  76,  77,  88,  98. 
Pope,  49,  156,  184. 
Pour  et  le  Contre,  Le,  162. 
Provost,  I'Abb^,  Clarissa  Har- 

lowe,  125-135,  passim,  147 ; 

Shakespeare,  162. 
Pujos,  6,  7,  8,  10,  11,  13,  15, 

16,  18,  19,  20,  32,  34. 

Racine,  Andromaque,  164 ; 
Athalie,  206  n;  in  England, 
163;  defended  vs.  Shake- 
speare, 200,  201,  204,  205; 
dramatist,  158,  181,  192, 
193,  195,  196,  215;  Shake- 
speare   in    country  of,  180. 

Racine  et  Shakespeare,  by 
Stendhal,  248. 

Rapidite  de  la  Vie,  La,  by 
Fontaine-Malherbe,    177   n. 

Reflections  on  a  Flower  Gar- 
den, Hervey's,  77. 

Rdflexions  Historiques  et 
Critiques    sur   les    Differens 


ThSdtres    de    V  Europe,     by 

Louis   Riccoboni,    162   n. 
Religion  Chritienne,  De  I'Evi- 

dence  de  la,   traduit  par  Le 

Tourneur,   115  n. 
Religion    Chretienne,     Vue    de 

I' Evidence  de  la,  traduite  par 

M.   Le   Tourneur,   114  n. 
R6musat,  Charles  de,  248. 
Reni,    Chateaubriand's,    75. 
Resignation,  The,  Young's, 51  n, 

65. 
Revenge,   The,  Young's,  69  n. 
Revolution     du     Thidtre,     by 

Charles  de  R^musat,  248  n. 
Revue  de  la  Vie,   65,   66. 
Rhapsodic  de  Richard  III.,  by 

De  Rozoi,    244   n. 
Riccoboni,   162  n. 
Richard  III.,    167,    173,    244 

n. 
Richardson,  Samuel,  46,  125- 

135,        passim;      Diderot's 

Eloge  de,   127. 
Richelieu,    Due   de,    205. 
Richepin,  Jean,  251  n. 
Riesbeck,    Gaspar,   143,    144- 

146,    152. 
Robertson,     104,      109,      113, 

134  n,  135  n. 
Robespierre,    75. 
Rochester,    181   n. 
Romantic    movement,    3,    96, 

102,  233,  249,  255. 
Romantique,     Le    Tourneur'a 

definition    of,     184-185    n, 

259. 
Romeo  and  Juliet,  Ducis's,  2, 

172;    Hugo's,  238-239;    Le 

Tourneur' s,    224,    235-237; 

Voltaire  quotes  from,  203. 
Romule,  by  la  Motte,   158  n. 
Rosciad,    The,    by    Churchill, 

110  n. 


314 


INDEX 


Rousseau,  J.  J.,  37  n,  38,  39, 

40,  46. 
Rousseau,  J. -J.,  et  le  Cosmo- 

politanisme      litUraire,      by 

J.  Texte,  75  n,  76  n,  96  n. 
Rutlidge,  le  chevalier  de,  209, 

210-213  n. 
Ryno  et  Alpin,  88  n. 

Saint  Evremond,   155. 

Sainte  Beuve,  249. 

Saisons,  Les,  by  James 
Thomson,  112  n. 

Salvator  Rosa,  185  n. 

Sancy,  M.  de,  15. 

Sand,  George,  98,  250. 

Satyr es  d'  Young,  ou,  V  Amour  de 
la  Renommie,  by  Bertin,  73  n. 

Savle,  Le,  by  A.  de  Musset, 
91  n. 

Saunders,  Bailey,  Life  and 
Letters  of  James  Macpher- 
son,  96  n. 

Savage,  Richard,  4,  92,  109, 
110,  111,  112,  113. 

Schiller,  241. 

Sea  Piece,  Young's,  65. 

Sedaine,  244. 

Sepolchri,  by  Ugo  Foscolo,  76. 

Sewell,  184. 

Shaftesbury,  49. 

Shakespeare,  appreciation  in 
France,  1,  154,  257;  diffi- 
culties of  translating,  165, 
166;  first  references  to 
in  France,  155;  first  trans- 
lations of,  by  Destouches, 
156-158;  Ducis,  170-173, 
243;  La  Place,  163-170; 
introduced  into  France  by 
Pr6vost,  162;  Voltaire,  2, 
159;  Le  Tourneur's  trans- 
lation of,  1,  3,  4,  11,  15,  17, 
32,  37,  92,  95,  99,  103,  104, 


133  n,  254,  255,  261 ;  char- 
acter  of  this  translation, 
225-230,  240;  description, 
175-189;  extracts  from, 
227  n,  232-233,  23^-237; 
purpose  and  method,  222- 
224;  value,  242,  243; 
modern  translations  of, 
241,  250,  251  n;  separate 
plays,  Antony  and  Cleo- 
patra, 167  n,  170  n,  224; 
As  You  Like  It,  250;  Ham- 
let, Ducis,  2,  171;  Hugo, 
233-234;  La  Place,  167  n; 
Le  Tourneur,  224,  232- 
233;  Meurice,  251  n;  Pro- 
vost, 162;  Sand,  250; 
Voltaire,  230-231;  Henry 
VI.,  167,  215;  Julius 
CcBsar,  La  Place,  167  n., 
170  n;  Le  Tourneur,  176, 
210,  224,  227,  228;  Vol- 
taire on,  190,  221;  King 
John,  172,  243;  King  Lear, 
Ducis,  172,  243;  Lacroix, 
251  n;  Loti,  251  n;  Le 
Tourneur,  224 ;  Macbeth, 
Beljame,  229  n,  242;  Ducis, 
172,  243;  Lacroix,  251  n; 
La  Place,  167;  Le  Tour- 
neur, 224,  229,  242;  Ri- 
chepin,  251  n ;  Voltaire,  203 ; 
Merry  Wives  of  Windsor, 
167,  170;  OthcUo,  Aicard, 
251  n;  Bertini,  244  n; 
Douin,  174;  Ducis,  172, 
243;  La  Place,  167;  Le 
Tourneur,  176,  210,  217, 
224,  226,  270-274 ;  Provost, 
162;  Vignv,  249;  Voltaire, 
203;  Richard  III.,  167,  173, 
244  n;  Romeo  and  Juliet, 
Ducis,  2,  172;  Hugo,  238- 
239;      Le    Tourneur,     224, 


INDEX 


315 


235-237;  Voltaire  quotes 
from,  203;  Tempest,  The, 
Destouches,  156,  157 ; 
Dryden  and  Davenant,  157 
n;  Le  Tourneur,  176,  217, 
224,  227,  228  n;  quoted  in 
Le  Sylphe,  121 ;  Timon 
of  Athens,  imitated  by 
Destouches,  157  n;  by  Mer- 
cier,  244;  translated  by 
La  Place,  167  n,  170  n; 
by  Le  Tourneur,  224; 
Twelfth  Night,  251  n;  son- 
nets, 152. 

Shakespeare,  traduit  de  Van- 
glois,  dedii  au  Roi,  175  n, 
226   n. 

Shakespeare,  reime  de  la  tra- 
duction de  Le  Tourneur, 
par  Charles  Vogel,  241. 

Shakespeare  et  V Antiquiti,  by 
P.   Stapfer,  250. 

Shakespeare  in  France  under 
the  Old  Regime,  by  J.  J. 
Jusserand,  155  n,  156  n, 
161  n. 

Shakespeare,  U  Influence  de, 
sur  le  Thidtre  Frangais,  by 
A.  Lacroix,  155  n. 

Shakespeare,  CEuvres  de,  tra- 
duites  de  V  anglais  par  Le 
Tourneur.  Nouvelle  Edition 
.  .  .  par    M.    Avenel,    241. 

Shakespeare,  CEuvres,  traduites 
par  Le  Tourneur,  revues 
par    Guizot,    248. 

Shakespeare,  CEuvres,  tra- 
duites par  M.  Michel,    250. 

Shakespeare,  CEuvres  completes, 
traduites  par  F.  V.  Hugo,  250. 

Shakespeare,  CEuvres  completes, 
traduites  par  B.  Laroche,  250. 

Shakespeare,  CEuvres  completes, 
traduites  par  Le  Tourneur. 


Nouvelle    idition,    revue    et 

corrigee  par  Guizot,   241. 
Shakespeare,  CEuvres  completes, 

traduites  par  Emile  Monti- 
gut,    250. 
Shakespeare,  CEuvres  dramati- 

ques,     bv   Georges     Duval, 

251    n. 
Shakespeare,  CEuvres   dramati- 

ques,  traduites  par  Le  Tour- 
neur, 241  n. 
Shakespeare,     Racine     et,     by 

Stendhal,   248,  249. 
Shakespeare,    sa     Vie    et    ses 

CEuvres,   by   M^/yieres,   250. 
Shakespeare,   Voltaire  and,  by 

T.       Lounsbury,      161      n, 

185  n,  206  n,  208  n,  250. 
Shakespeare,  Works  of,  edited 

by  Johnson  and   Steevens, 

220   n,    226   n. 
Shenstone,    151. 
Shylock,    lay    E.    Haraucourt, 

251  n. 
Si^ge   de   Calais,   Le,    by   Du 

Belloy,    170. 
Smeatman,  138. 
Sophocles,  183,  186,  201,  215. 
Sparrman,     Andr6,     137-139, 

144. 
Stael,   Mme.    de,    75,   97,   98, 

246-247,  248. 
Stapfer,   Paul,   250. 
Steevens,  George,  220  n,  226  n. 
Stendhal,  248,  249. 
Suard,  l'Abb6,  89,  90,  113. 
Swift,  49,  156. 
Sylphe,   Le,    118-122,    151    n, 

152. 

Tartuffe,   Le,    163. 

Tatler,  The,  211. 

Temora,  Ossian's,  88  n,  93,  94. 

Terns,   Le,   107-108. 


316 


INDEX 


Texte,  Joseph,  75  n,    76    n, 

126  n. 
TMatre    Anglais,    by    Jerome 

Carr6,  191. 
ThiAtre  Anglois,  Le,  by  A.  de 

La  Place,  69,  163,  167,  169. 
Thomas,       E.,       Montpellier, 

Tableau     historique     et     de- 

scriptif,  74  n. 
Thomas,       W.,       Le      PoUe, 

Edward    Young,    76   n. 
Thomson,  James,  life  of,  4,  92, 

109,     110,    112,     113;     Les 

Saisons,   112,   152. 
TibuUus  of  Germany,  the,  14. 
Tombeaux  de  Verone,  Les,  by 

Mercier,  173. 
Tombo,     Rudolf,     Ossian    in 

Germany,   96  n. 
Traits   des   Passions,    67,    70. 
Travels  in  Germany,  by  Paul 

Henry  Maty,   144  n. 
Trenck,    Baron    de,    146-151, 

152. 
Trenck,    Fr6d6ric    baron    de, 

Merkvnlrdige  LefJensgeschich- 

te,  146  n. 
Trenck,    Le    Baron   de,    ou   le 

prisonnier       prussien,       by 

Arnoult,  147  n, 
Trenck,   La    Vie  de  Fr4d&ric, 

baron  de,  translated  by  Le 

Tourneur,  146  n. 
Trenck,  Vie  de  Frid&ric,  baron 

de,  by  the  Baron  de  Bock, 

146. 
True    Estimation    of    Hp,man 

Life,  Young's,  70. 
Turcaret,  by  Le  Sage,  6. 
Turgot,  88,   89. 

Vaines,  M.  de,  201,  204  n. 

Vallamprey,  Pierre  Vicq  de,  5. 
Valognes,  5,  6,  12,  13  n,  20  n. 


Van  Loo,  Carl,  31. 

VarUtis  Litteraires,  Suard's, 
90  n. 

Vega,  Lopez  de,  181  n. 

Vengeance,  La,  67. 

Vigny,  Alfred  de,  249. 

Vogel,   Chasles,   241. 

Voltaire,  Commentary  on  Cor- 
neille,  203;  comparison  of 
Julius  Ccesar  and  Cinna, 
190;  Dictionary,  191;  Ham- 
let, 230-231,  234;  Irdne, 
207 ;  Le  Tourneur  refers  to, 
27 ;  Le  Toumeur's  Epitre 
h  M.  de  Voltaire,  65 ;  Le 
Toumeur's  reply  to,  197- 
199;  Letters  to  Academy, 
201,  202-204,  206;  d'Ar- 
gental,  194-195, 200  ;  Due  de 
Richelieu,  205  n  ;  La  Harpe, 
201-202;  M.  de  Vaines, 
201,  204  n;  Lettres  Philo- 
sophiques,  2,  160,  230  n; 
(Edipe,  159;  on  Ossian,  97; 
on  Shakespeare,  first  im- 
pressions of,  159-161 ;  war 
against,  94, 190-207 ;  Thidtre 
Anglais  by  J&romS  CarrS, 
191 ;  verses  to  Clairaut,  31  n; 
visited  by  Pennant,  141 ; 
on  Young,  72,  96,   198. 

Voltaire  and  Shakespeare,  by 
Thomas  Lounsbury,  161  n, 
185  n,  206,  208  n,  250. 

Voyage  A  ErmenonviUe,  by 
Le  Tourneur,  37-42. 

Voyage  au  Cap  de  Bonne 
Esp^rance,  by  Le  Tourneur, 
137-139. 

Voyage  en  AUemagne,  by  Riee- 
beck,    144   n. 

Voyage  to  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  by  Spamnan,  138- 
139. 


INDEX 


817 


Warburton,   184. 
Werther,  97. 
Wesley,  John,  77  n. 
Westermann,  75. 
Wicherly,  181  n. 
Wieland,  221. 

Winter  Piece,  A,  by  Hervey, 
77. 

Young,  Edward,  imitations  of, 
73;  influence  in  France,  75, 
96 ;  in  Germany,  76 ;  in 
Italy,  76;  Le  Tourneur's 
translation  of,  3,  4,  9,  10, 
11,  17,  37,  48-76,  79,  85, 
88,  92,  93,  95,  99,  101.  103, 


108,  114,  126,  127,  175,  176, 
211,  216,  225,  254,  255, 
257;  Night  Thoughts,  4,  15, 
44,  46,  47,  48,  53-67,  76, 
77,  78,  79,  174;  Nuits,  47, 
50,  55,  59,  67,  72,  73  n,  87, 
88,  103,  133  n,  198,  241; 
CEuvres  diverses,  47,  67-70, 
175;  Voltaire  on,  72,  196, 
198;  wild  enthusiasm  for, 
126,    133   n,    174,    192. 

Young  in  Germany,  by  John 
Kind,  76  n. 

Young,  Le  Poete  Edward,  by 
W.  Thomas,  76  n. 


^i»:r.a^^ 


•  F  THE 


UNIVERSITY 

OF 


VITA 

Mary  Gertrude  Gushing  was  born  of 
American  parents  in  Montreal,  Ganada,  April  7, 
1870.  She  was  educated  in  the  private  schools 
of  Boston,  and  in  Wellesley  College,  from  which 
she  received  the  degree  of  B.S.  in  1892  and 
that  of  A.M.  in  1895.  For  two  years,  1897- 
1898  and  1898-1899,  she  taught  French  and 
Latin  in  the  Walnut  Hill  School,  Natick,  Mass. 
In  October,  1900,  she  entered  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, and  was  in  residence  as  a  graduate  stu- 
dent till  February,  1905.  From  October,  1905, 
to  June,  1907,  she  was  Instructor  in  French  and 
Spanish  in  Mt.  Holyoke  College,  where  she  is 
now  Associate  Professor  of  Romance  Languages. 
The  years  1892-1893,  1899-1900,  1907-1908, 
the  summers  of  1897  and  1902,  and  March- 
September  of  1905  were  spent  in  travel  and 
study  in  Europe. 


E 


14  DAY  USE 

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